Iris
by Clecamuffin
Summary: This is my Death Note OC! L is pondering his current, frustrating case when Watari interrupts him to tell him some exciting news... his sister has a break from her mental doctors! :D Intrigued? You should be. Oh, and there is a bit of MattxMello in here, but really more of sidelined. I don't own Death Note.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Ok, I couldn't wait! :D This is my Death Note OC. I hope you like her! BTW, this occurs before the whole Kira investigation. And the BB murder case. It just happens before everything. Also, don't ask me why both of the names of my OCs so far start with 'I' and are plants. I don't know. -.-**

L was staring off into space, thinking about the current case he was working on while absentmindedly popping sugar cubes in his mouth. Watari quietly entered the room, closing the door behind him. "How goes the case?" he asked when L looked up at him.  
"It's crawling, but crawling relatively fast enough."

"Do you have time to take a break?"

"I could, but I'd rather not."

"Well, you see, _she's _here."

L glanced up quickly, his eyes boring into Watari. "Let her in, of course."

A minute later, a young girl, about the age of 8, rushed though the door. She had black hair, pale skin, and deep brown eyes. "Brother!" She ran over to hug him.  
L gave a small smile. "Well hello, Iris, how are you doing today?"

She tilted her head thoughtfully. "I am functioning quite well, but…" she broke off and slowly shook her head.

L's smile disappeared. "Not even 'how are you?' Not even for your brother?"

Iris just looked up at him sadly. Watari smiled softly. "Still, she got six words out, even after her greeting. It's improving."

"Not enough. Most children speak too much. Why can't she speak at all?"

Watari's eyes softened. "You know why. Her mind is unstable. It possesses a large amount of knowledge, like you, but it is unable to express that."

Iris frowned, her brow furrowed. "I'm right here! Quit talking about me!" she screamed… or she thought she did. With no change in either of the men's expressions, she assumed she hadn't spoken after all. _Why is this so hard? Why do I think but then not speak? What is wrong with me?_

Iris, however, was used to this. Thought she was frustrated, she let it go and hopped into L's lap.

This made him chuckle. "You want to hear about my case, then?"

She nodded.  
"Well, you see, people are dying in their beds. They die from some sort of hole that has been burnt through their head."

Iris squealed. "Rhyme!" (**A/N: Because 8-year-olds would totally care about the rhyme and not the creepiness factor… that shows that she isn't really a normal child**)

L smirked. "You're right, I did rhyme! Anyway, the only problem is, all of the doors are locked, the windows are shut, and nothing is broken. I just can't seem to figure out how they're doing it. It's also far too easy to figure out who is the murderer and why they are killing people, so that is hard to find out, too."

Iris looked bemused. Watari stepped in. "So you don't think it is our current suspect?"

L shook his head. "All the people who are dying are either people who are… not on friendly terms… with a certain man, or who he owes money to. It was so easy to come to this conclusion, though, that I wonder if someone isn't setting him up. Although, all of his enemies are dying, so who would want to set him up?"

"Rate of death?" Iris asked, slightly creepily.

"One a week."

"Lots of enemies."

L laughed at this. "I'm afraid that's our problem. He has many enemies, but it isn't infinite. When the list runs out, will the murderer start killing random, innocent people? Or will he stop altogether? I'm afraid this has created a bit of a timer for me."

When Iris heard this, she promptly jumped off L's lap and walked over to the door. "Later, brother."

L smiled sadly. "Iris, you weren't wasting my time. You never could."

She just shook her head, repeated herself, and meandered back to the room that was always hers whenever she came here on a holiday, to get away from the mental doctors at Wammy's House. If they could fix her speaking problem, she could work with her brother, L, on his cases, or even take his place. That's why they were there.

She didn't want that, though. She wanted to spend time with her brother, the only for of parent that she had. The only friends she had. You know, besides Watari. He was pretty cool.

Iris closed her eyes and reviewed her day so far. It was a good day. She saw her brother for the first time in three months. She made a few jokes. Yes, so far, it was a good day. She ended her usual review of her day (something her mental doctors advised) by counting the number of times she smiled. Once, when she first saw her brother. Other than that, she was stone-faced. Suddenly the day didn't seem so magnificent.

_I really need to express myself more. But I can't! Ugg. Stupid whatever-this-is._

To occupy herself while L mulled over the case, she thought about it, too. Of course, in her small room, she had about a dozen bookshelves, filled to the brim with books she hadn't read yet, but the case intrigued her. How on Earth did the murderer kill his victims? Who was murdering them, and why? These questions had to be answered in order to solve the case.

She knew L didn't need her help, but she decided to satisfy her own curiosity by helping anyway. Even if they didn't know she was helping.

Iris strode over to her expensive laptop, opened it, and logged into her account. She then "accessed" all the information pertaining to the case by typing in a quick code.

This code then gave her the username and password so she could get to the information normally. She used this to set up more defenses that most people would be unaware of and that wouldn't hinder L and Watari in any way. It just made it harder for hackers, such as herself, to access it.

After a few minutes of this, she turned to the information and began thinking. Smirking, she wondered what her doctors would do if they knew what she just did. Probably cut off all of her access to computers. Luckily, they would never find out, as she was taught by the best: Matt.

_ Matt stared at his computer screen incredulously from his bed. _L has a sister? What? _Led by his curiosity, he typed in a few more codes and saw her predicament. _Iris, huh… I actually feel rather bad for her. A genius, but can't really talk… must be awful.

_ Mello suddenly walked in. Matt had the impulse to shut his laptop immediately, but that would just arouse suspicion. After all, he was on his computer constantly. A few clicks and taps later, and Matt was playing a game, like normal._

_ "What're doing?" Mello asked in a long, drawling voice._

_ "Playing a game. What else?"_

_ "Oh, I just thought you might be hacking into the system to see what our test scores for the exams were."_

_ Matt's heart skipped a beat. This was, in fact, what he had been doing, but he didn't want to have to tell Mello that he cam in second… again. (Or rather, he came in third, but Iris didn't count in the placement of the children.) No one wants to deal with Matt's roommate when he's angry, even his best (and only) friend. Otherwise, he'd probably tell Mello about Iris. You know, probably. Mello wouldn't be too thrilled that there was _another_ person smarter than him._

_ "No."_

_ "Well? Can you?"_

_ Matt rolled his eyes, swiftly coming up with a lie. "They added more security. I _could _technically, but they would know I was there. And probably take away my computer, too."_

_ "Oh. That sucks."_

_ "Yeah." Matt tried to think of an excuse to go see Iris – because he was insanely curious at this point – but since he never left his room, nothing would sound convincing. He sighed and decided to go at night, when Mello wouldn't know he left._

_…_

_ Matt glared at the lock, as if that would make it melt. He had snuck out of his room, creeped down countless hallways, got lost twice, only to be stopped by a lock? SERIOUSLY? He could get through any software block, but a physical one? No way. Not when it's this complicated.  
Matt groaned, hitting his head against the door. "Yes?" a girl's voice came from inside. Matt froze, realizing too late that his head made a knocking sound. "I thought we already…" she trailed off, as if she couldn't talk anymore. Matt, having read about her, knew this to be true. He hesitated, and then asked quietly if he could come in._

_ "You're not… doctor?"_

_ "No. I'm a student here. You got a higher score than Near on our exams, so I was curious as to who you are?"_

_ "How do you know?"_

_ "About the exams?" Matt grinned. "Don't tell anyone, but I hacked."_

_ There was a bit of laughing beyond the door. "Bad system, if a student could."_

_ Matt made his voice sound mock offended. "How rude! I can hack into anything!"_

_ The door opened, and Iris shocked Matt by how much she looked like L, minus the eyes. Her eyes were deep brown, filled with emotion, most of it sad. Right now though, they were happy and slightly demanding (she was about 5 after all). "Teach."_

_ "Teach? You how to hack? Why?"_

_ Iris, who was younger than Matt had expected, shrugged._

_ He paused again. "I don't have my computer with me… how much do you know about hacking?"_

_ Iris tried to speak, but then just shook her head. Matt assumed she could answer questions well. "You don't know anything?"_

_ She nodded._

_ "Ok. I'd recommend started out with signing up for coding class. That will help you learn the basics. I'll teach you from there. Is that ok?"_

_ Iris beamed and nodded._

_ "I'll see you soon, then!"_


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: There will be some opinions in this chapter about controversial topics, and I just want to say beforehand that any opinions stated are not necessarily mine, just the characters'. Of course, they might be mine, but you wouldn't know, would you? :) I don't want to insult anyone.**

Iris sat up suddenly. _Oh! That's how it's done! _She ran as fast as she could. "L!" She cried, bursting into the room. "I have it! It…" But then she abruptly cut off.

"You solved the case?" L inquired after swallowing a mouth full of cake.

Iris moved her hand in a so-so motion.

"You know who did it?"

She shook her head.

"You know why they did it?"

Iris looked at him weirdly. He laughed. "You're right, it's hard to know that without knowing who, right? Anyway, you know who they did it?"

She jumped up and down, grinning hugely.

"Awesome! Can-Can you tell me?"

Iris furrowed her brow. She squeezed her eyes shut, pursed her lips, and screamed with frustration.

"Oh, no. Watari, I think she's going to have a tantrum. Iris, dear, it's ok, I can solve it! You don't have to yell in codes, I'll come up with it sooner or later!"

But there was no stopping her. She hadn't had a tantrum in years, but she was fed up. So she shouted exactly what her mind was thinking. "Two plus two is a fish! Four plus four is a pot with two handles! My brother plus my brother is not a rectangle, like some idiots think, but a square without a side! The wrong answer plus the wrong answer is candy! A bent slinky plus a bent slinky is a circle! Arg! Why can't I just….?!" She wailed, falling on her knees, and eventually started bawling. After all, she was 8 and couldn't talk when talking might've helped out her brother a lot.

L's eyes softened as he reached down to hug her. "It's ok, Iris. I'll figure this out. Don't cry. Go back to your room and read another book, ok?"

Iris frowned, turned towards the door, and stalked out. All the while she was thinking as hard as she could, _I'm not insane. I'm not insane! I'm NOT insane! _

And despite not having dinner yet, she collapsed into bed, exhausted from the day's events.

…

The next morning, Iris ate her pancakes ravenously. "That's what you get for skipping dinner," Watari chuckled.

"Anyway," L smiled softly, "We're having a special guest today."

She groaned and rolled her eyes, thinking it was a mental doctor after her _episode _yesterday.

L rose his eyebrows. "Now don't be like that! I said the guest was _special _didn't I?"

She tilted her head in confusion. "Who?"

"Why, the one and only Matt, of course!"

Iris's face lit up, before realizing that L and Watari didn't know she could hack… and didn't know she knew Matt. So she pretended her lit-up face was sarcastic and quickly rolled her eyes.

"Now don't give me that look! He goes to Wammy's House and will… erm… allow us to _access _certain computer files relevant to the case."

She snorted. Then thoughtfully began, "I want to… meet… him." The last two words were forced, but she got them out, so she smirked with satisfaction.

L's eyes softened. "But of course."

…

Later that day, Matt entered the building, greeted by L, Watari, and Iris, smoking a cigarette. Watari frowned and began to tell Matt to put it out when Iris promptly took a deep breath, held it, and ran over to him. She jumped up, snatched the cigarette from his startled mouth, threw it on the ground, and stomped it out. She then let out her breath and proceeded to hit him with all her might (which wasn't much, being 8) on his side.

L considered this, glanced at Watari, who looked perplexed, and faced a grinning Matt who was staring at Iris bemusedly. "Iris, that reaction is not one you would've had with a stranger." L mentioned.

Iris stopped hitting Matt and frowned. "Because…Cigarettes are worse than atomic bombs."

Matt's grin broadened. "You're right, they have killed more people than atom bombs, but that's just 'cause we haven't used the bombs."

Iris glared at him. "Regardless, they're still…" Being unable to finish her sentence, she sighed and proceeded to jump on the cigarette smudge even more with a murderous look on her face.

"Ok, ok, I get the point. You can stop creating floor stains." Matt gently put his hand on her shoulder to stop her.

"Do you guys… know each other?" Watari asked incredulously.

Iris tilted her head to the side, as if thinking, and then shook her head 'innocently'.

Matt, seeing her reaction, smirked. "Definitely not. Now where's the computer?"

After that unconvincing reply, the two went deeper inside, leaving L and Watari to guess at their connection.

…

Later, Matt opened the door to Iris's room. "Hey! How're you?"

She smiled and gave one thumbs-up. "Not two? Is my presence only worth one thumb?"

Iris smirked, but didn't put up another thumb.

"Well then. Fine. I see how it is."

She snorted at Matt's sarcastically indignant reply.

"Anyway, I'm guessing you don't want me to tell them that you can hack?"

"Correct."

"And that being said, they probably shouldn't know that you're good enough to hack into their system right?"

Iris grinned and put a finger to her lips.

"Anyway, I updated their security so that not even _you,_ my lovely apprentice, can get in… but I'm sure that isn't a problem for you since you have the code, right?"

Iris frowned. She held up her index finger to say 'one'. "Only for case!" She glared at him in a way that clearly said, "Why'd you have to lock me out?"

"So you only have one code, huh? And I didn't lock you out; I locked out the bad guys! But if you're gonna be like that…" From his mouth issued a stream of numbers. This was an old exercise Matt used with her so she would memorize codes and recognize patterns more easily. A minute later, he stopped. "Got it?"

Iris winked. "Course!" She then paused for a minute. _Earlier I thought that L and Watari were my only friends. That's not true. Matt's my friend, too. _She beamed and put up two thumbs.

"Yeah, score!" Matt shouted, throwing his arms in the air.

The door opened. "So that's how you know each other." L's voice floated into the room.

The shocked expressions on Matt and Iris's faces were hilarious and identical. They were busted.

"It's ok, I won't take away your computer, Iris. Though I'm not thrilled she hacks into our system (ask next time, ok?), I find it amusing that you've become a hacker. Is she any good, Matt?"

"I taught her, didn't I? She's better than some hackers in the Mafia. I can still hack much better than her, but I'm, you know, _me._"

"Fair point. Anyway, if that's the case, you don't have to stay here, Matt."

Iris pouted. Matt smiled. "I'll come visit from time to time, Iris, don't worry! I really should get back to Mello… and uh, my studies, though."

Iris's pout turned into a smirk. Matt raised his eyebrows and waggled his finger at her. "Don't be getting any ideas, Iris, I'm his only friend; that's why I want to go back."

Iris's smirk grew wider. "Right."

Matt had a very slight blush coloring his cheeks. "Shut up, you perv," he mumbled, not making eye contact.

"Aww, Matt, don't be embarrassed, I think it's…" she stopped as if she suddenly realized what she was doing. "It's…" Her brow furrowed. _That was the most important part, too! Now he doesn't know if I was gonna say horrible or great! Obviously the latter, but still!_

"It's what? Good, bad, or what?" Matt asked, trying to control his franticness.

Iris snarled, marched over to her desk, opened her computer and typed the word 'horrible'.

Matt gasped and looked saddened. Iris then looked at the word in shock. "No!" She erased the word and typed 'evil'. She was just thinking her condition was evil, but she didn't mean to type that! "No! no, no, no!" She deleted 'evil' and typed 'no'. She then deleted it and typed it again. Finally, she took a deep breath, deleted 'no' and typed 'like a hero'.

At this point Matt roared with laughter. "You think me being gay for an almost-bipolar Catholic is heroic?"

Iris grimaced. Obviously she wrote and typed exactly what her mind thought, and since her mind thought in a code, everyone would think what she typed or wrote was ridiculous.

L glanced at the screen. He then looked at Matt. "Her mind thinks in a code. 'Like a hero' probably means something else to her. Not heroic- that's too straightforward."

"Oh! I think she meant 'great.' It fits in with what she was saying earlier, too." He smiled softly, grateful to the little mute genius.

Iris sighed and nodded, frustrated that it was so hard to communicate, and that her fingers typed what her mind was thinking, not what she wanted to typed.

L's voice broke her negative thoughts, reminding her of more things to be negative about. "Anyway, Matt, you're welcome to stay for the night before going back to Wammy's House tomorrow."

Matt looked a little sad. "Ok. I really should get back."

"Thank you for helping out with the case."

"Of course."


	3. Chapter 3

Later that night, right before Iris fell asleep, her door creaked open. "Iris? Are you awake?"

"Yes."

"Can I talk to you about something? I-I couldn't sleep."

"Always."

Matt came over to sit next to Iris, who had sat up, leaning against her pillow. "S-Since you know I'm gay and all… well… how do you think Mello would react? 'Cause, he's Catholic and all, so he might think gays are evil. And even if he were fine with it, how would he react to me being gay for him? He probably would doesn't like me, and he has a really short temper, so he'd probably explode, wouldn't he? Wouldn't he hate me? I mean, we've been friends for a long time, but the issue never came up, so I have no idea where he stands for it. He probably hates gays, doesn't he? So how do I figure that out without him killing me? I couldn't stand it if Mello hated me! But he probably would… arg! I don't know what to do!"

While Matt ranted, Iris was slightly taken aback. She had never seen Matt this upset. Love must be horrible… or, uncertainty about love.

Iris knew that this was probably her most important moment in Matt's life. Ok, maybe not the most important, but still pretty important. She took a deep breath, and tried to calmly and concisely (for she didn't have much time) advise him.

"Talk with him. See if he likes gays. If so, see if he likes you. C-C-Carefully!" She sort of spat the last word out, but she still got her message across.

Matt gaped at her. "That's probably the longest speech you've ever made! Awesome! And… thank you. I will talk to him. You're right-I'll never get anywhere like this. Anyway, we should probably go to bed now. 'Night!"

Iris beamed and nodded. This was the first time she helped someone with words- or at least, she hoped he helped him.

…

The next morning, Matt, who was a good sight more cheerful than yesterday, asked L how he was doing with the case.

L glanced, nervous, at Iris who was eating her waffles, pretending to ignore them. "Not too well, I'm afraid. I can't come up with who would possibly do this, besides the obvious, and he isn't giving any information. I think Iris had an idea as to how it was being done, but hasn't been able to convoy it. Meanwhile, the list of potential victims is decreasing dramatically. Within a month or so, I'm afraid I will have run out of time."

Matt furrowed his brow. "That's a shame. Do you want Mello and me to help? He'd be glad to, I'm sure."

"No, you would just be a distraction, no offense. I need to think, and I do that best with no one around."

Iris looked a bit guilty. "Riddle?" She questioned.

"I haven't salved your riddle, yet, I'm sorry. And, no, you should not think of going back to Wammy's House with Matt. It is your vacation time, after all."

Iris nodded and tried, again, to tell L how the murderer killed his victims, but ended up just imagining herself talking. She tried, hard, all throughout breakfast.

Matt then left, leaving Iris relatively somber. She loved her brother very much, but he wasn't as fun as Matt was. It probably had something to do with the fact that Matt played videogames all day with her and L was a detective who had a pressing case with a time-limit, so he didn't have any time at all. Iris was also anxious and hopeful at the same time, regarding Mello's reaction to Matt's confession. _Oh please, Mello, please love Matt! _

* * *

__**A/N: Ok! So this part doesn't go with the next part AT ALL, so I'm making two chapters. Don't worry, the next chapter is long enough to make up for the shortness of this one. And I'm posting it in the same day. You're welcome! :D**


	4. Chapter 4

Time passed quickly, and soon Iris was back at Wammy's House, learning half the day, and being persuaded to talk the other half. It wasn't working. The fact that they were trying to get her to talk was worse for her condition, but since she couldn't tell them that she had an extreme case of stage freight, along with other complications, they kept trying useless methods.

Another bad part was being in the same building as Matt, but being unable to see him. Iris kept asking, in her own way, if she could see him, but her doctors didn't know she was friends with him. Because they didn't know that, they were afraid that if he saw her, he would tease her for not being able to talk, or something like that. This would be the very worst thing for her condition, so she wasn't allowed outside of her room.

Her room was nice, though, with a high-tech laptop that she partly fixed up herself, a very comfy bed, three huge bookshelves (two of which were constantly being traded out for new books, and the other was full of her favorites), a desk, a reading beanbag chair, and some places for her to eat and such. Her doctors lived next door. There were only two at any given time.

One of her doctors, Dr. Harriet, was full time. She lived there constantly, helping out and trying to get Iris to speak. She was extremely nice, and fun, and if Iris did anything wrong, Dr. Harriet would just reprimand her, smile, then forgive her. While Iris enjoyed hanging out with her, she wished to see some other people too.

Her other doctors came and went. They were stricter. Their main purpose in being there was to study Iris, which she absolutely hated. They wanted her to speak, too, but for a different reason- they wanted to know how her mind worked, and couldn't figure it out unless she spoke. If Dr. Harriet weren't there, they would almost be worsening Iris's condition, but as it was, they just slowed her down. They were necessary; they were there to learn more about Iris's mental instability and hopefully come up with a way to solve it, but Iris wished they were more successful.

One day, Iris was on her computer, and a red, blinking sign came up, saying, "Virus detected!" She freaked out, typing up codes and trying to ward off the unseen threat. They must've been really good to be able to get past her firewalls, so she wondered briefly if it was Matt, but then dismissed the fact, positive that Matt could get through her defenses without being detected. She was thankful that her doctors were on lunch break; otherwise they would've seen her computer skills.

After a minute, the sign went away and her computer acted as if it warded off the threat. However, Iris knew that the hacker could've just broken in and made it look like he couldn't get in. Because of this, she did a thorough software check. After about 30 minutes, it detected something… at the same time her doctors finished lunch.

Dr. Harriet entered the room to see Iris at her computer, furiously typing away, while a little red light appeared on the screen. "What is that, Iris?"

Iris spun around, startled, before shaking her head and turning back to the screen. "Important! Need Matt here _now!_"

The other doctor looked flabbergasted, especially since he just arrived this morning. "Who's Matt? Why does she want to see him? I thought Iris couldn't talk!"

Dr. Harriet blinked a few times before answering. "He's a student at the school, number three, in fact, very intelligent. I can't imagine why she would want to see him, but she said it was important, so I'll go get him. Oh, and Iris can talk, just not that much. She talks more when something is urgent or important, so I would presume that this is one of those times. I'll be back in a minute, Iris." She spun around racing out the door.

The new doctor looked bewildered. "Why on Earth would Dr. Harriet answer Iris's request? That's just stupid! Iris is too fragile to meet another student, who would probably ridicule her!"

_Idiot. _Iris thought. _Why would I ask to meet him if I thought he might be hostile? I'm not that stupid. He needs to stop treating me like _I'm _the idiot! Just because I can't speak…! _Taking a deep breath, she forced herself to calm down and try to see who planted the virus in her computer, what it was doing, and prevent it from learning anything essential until Matt got here.

The doctor grew more irritated with every passing second. Eventually, he yelled at her. "Hey, you! What do you think you are doing? Your medical condition will only get worse, and then we'll never learn what your mind is doing! You can't just call a random stranger to come here, idiot!"

At this, Iris quit typing. She stopped moving at all, except for the tears of frustration that welled in her eyes and her clenched fists. "_You _can't cure me!"

A second later, Matt burst into the room, panting, and slapped the new doctor in the face. "I heard what you were yelling out in the hall, _doctor. _I'll have you know that I'm not a random stranger; I'm her friend. And if you keep yelling at her, _you'll _be the one to worsen her 'medical condition', as you call it. I just think she's afraid to talk because of what people might think of her." Matt grimaced and then ran over to Iris. "Hey, are you ok? What's up?"

To respond to this, Iris gave Matt her desk chair, so he could more easily look at the computer. "Ooooh. That's the problem. Do you want me to figure out what the virus was intended for, and whom it came from, or just get rid of it?"

"All three."

"Ok, give me a minute." Matt's fingers whirled on the keyboard, typing in codes and trying to decipher why the bug was there. Iris didn't have very many important things on her computer, except for things about her, so it had to do with the fact that it was _Iris's _computer.

The new doctor, still bristling at his exchange with this _Matt _person, glanced at the screen. "Wait a second, you're a _hacker? _You're hacking into Iris's computer! How dare you!"

"Idiot!" Iris yelled, fed up.

"No, _doctor_,I'm trying to figure out why someone else was hacking into her computer while you guys were on lunch break!"

Dr. Harriet furrowed her brow. "Why would anyone be able to get in? The computer was protected by out top systems, so…"

"Well, if it could get through Iris's firewalls, it probably could get through yours."

"Wait, _Iris _put up more firewalls? She can hack?" The new doctor shouted.

"Yeah, what do you think she was doing while you were running to get me? Certainly not standing idly, letting someone steal potentially very important information about her."

"But… that's just insane! Where would she learn to hack? We teach her everything, right here in this room! The only time she's left was to go see L, but he's her brother, he wouldn't teach her bad things like hacking!"

"Actually," Matt sighed, impatient. "hacking isn't bad at all. It can help prevent people from learning very bad things about you, and can help you learn useful things to help with a detective case. L actually asked me to go over there and hack for him. And, no, he didn't teach her. I did."

Dr. Harriet gaped. "How?"

"I learned of her existence when I was hacking into the system to learn what our exam scores were."

Dr. Harriet stared at him, amused. "You couldn't wait?"

"Nope. Not when your best friend will pretty much explode if he hears he came in second again, so you want to figure out if he's going to explode before he does."

"So you basically sneaked down here at night and taught her how to hack?"

"At her request, yes. Now please let me concentrate."

"Oh, Iris, you're so disobedient." She sighed. "But you know what? That's ok. It means that you're becoming independent, and that's what we want to hear."

The new doctor looked indignant. "_That's ok? THAT'S OK? _Seriously? It is not ok! Iris shouldn't be learning anything except what we allow her to, and she shouldn't be doing anything except trying to speak so we can figure out what her problem is!"

At this, Dr. Harriet followed Matt in slapping him. "Idiot! We are trying to cure Iris for the purpose of her being cured! She is a human, not a science experiment! Please treat her as such! If you can't, then leave!"

Iris smirked triumphantly at him. She hadn't liked this new doctor from the start. However, to her surprise, he grimaced, faced her and reluctantly said, "I'm sorry, Iris. You are a child, and I was trying to make sure you didn't do anything stupid. I guess I used the wrong reasons, like your value to science, but that isn't the only thing about you that I was trying to protect. You need to understand, though, that we are your doctors. You need to listen to us. I just don't think it would be a good idea for you to learn hacking."

Matt grimaced. "Too late. And I thought I told you to be quiet! This virus is actually pretty hard to crack."

"Sorry, Matt, we'll be quiet now." Dr. Harriet apologized.

After about 30 minutes, Matt stopped typing. "The virus is gone, and I know that it was trying to learn information about you, Iris, and L. Fortunately, it didn't learn much before I stopped it. Your firewalls helped with that. Unfortunately, I couldn't learn where the virus was coming from. That part was very securely guarded. I _almost _did, but the virus basically self-destructed before I could learn anything. Sorry 'bout that."

"It's… ok…" Iris sighed, disappointed. She really wanted to go pursue whoever did this.

The new doctor sighed with relief. "Good. I'm glad you didn't learn anything like that."

They all stared at him, incredulous. "What? If Iris learned anything like that, then she would go off on a wild goose chase trying to find them! She needs to stay in a comfortable environment and heal."

Dr. Harriet rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Matt? Can you set up more firewalls around Iris's computer and the Wammy's House system?"

Matt grinned. "I set up more for Wammy's House about two years ago, when I found I could hack in so easily, and I set up more firewalls for Iris's computer about two minutes ago, while I still had the computer, just in case you wouldn't let me."

Dr. Harriet looked taken aback. "O-Oh. Ok. Well then. Thank you, I guess."

"Sure thing."

Iris furrowed her brow, still frustrated that the virus and whoever sent it had gotten away. Then, her face brightened as an idea entered her mind. "Matt! Firewall 13!"

Matt blinked. "Why 13?"

"You know."

"I know the purpose of 13. Do you really want to use that?"

The new doctor interrupted. "What is firewall 13?"

Iris glared at Matt, praying he wouldn't tell the truth. "Oh, it's just really, really advanced, so I don't really see the purpose of putting it up. Sometimes, it prevents you from entering your own computer… but I'm sure Iris is smart enough to get around that."

She sighed with relief. He did lie. Good. Matt and Iris's hacking codes were still their own. She then looked at Matt to answer his question. "Yes."

Dr. Harriet smiled reassuringly at Iris. "It's ok. No one will hack into your computer again. You don't have to do that."

"Matt. Firewall 13."

He pursed his lips, thinking. "Fine, but let me save all of your stuff to a drive first. That way, if it blocks you, you won't have lost everything."

Iris smiled. "Ok."

* * *

**Mwhahaha! Cliffhanger! ;)**


	5. Chapter 5

Instead of saving everything to a drive, Matt was moving everything to a drive and deleting everything personal from the computer. He told her doctors that it might take him a while to put up, so he took Iris's laptop to his room. This allowed him to work in peace, without constant questions.

The reason he needed to do this is because Firewall 13 wasn't even a firewall, only to be used for last resorts (hence the 13 thing- you'd be unlucky if you had to use it). What it did was hack into your computer, shifting through absolutely _everything. _It could find even the smallest traces of a virus, even if it was no longer there. From there, it could find the virus's code and track it back to where it came from. The only thing is, it takes away all of the protective firewalls around what it looks through, so you have to wipe your computer before you use it.

Matt had never used Firewall 13 for a practical use, only when he was creating it. This made him slightly wary of it, because, after all, he was pretty much putting a virus on Iris's computer. Sure, it was a virus that he could destroy instantly, but if anyone else hacked into it, they could pretty much do whatever they wanted with Iris's computer. The only reason he agreed was because of the look in Iris's eyes when she asked Matt to put it up; it was a look of such determination and anger, it rivaled Mello's when he was talking about beating Near.

Matt sighed, hoping this wouldn't lead to danger for Iris when she was sure to attempt to catch this person, and began to set up Firewall 13.

…

Iris sat in her desk chair, tapping her fingers against the table, impatiently waiting for her computer to be returned, with the virus and its sender found. It had already been a week. It should've only taken the weekend! What on Earth was Matt doing? She had been doing that a lot lately.

This time though, Matt answered her telepathic call. After knocking on the door five times in a special rhythm, he entered, with her laptop and a drive in hand. "Hey Iris! Guess what? The virus… erm Firewall 13 is done! And the virus is found. Sort of. That's what I meant to say."

Iris rolled her eyes, glad her mental doctors were on lunch break. "Sort of? And you're late."

"Hehehe… about that… well, you see, I kind of had a lot of homework that I might've done and, well, I was busy, and, umm… the vir- Firewall 13 took longer than usual, too!" Matt mumbled, not wanting to admit that he got three new videogames and had been playing on those the whole weekend.

However, Iris knew Matt very well. She raised her eyebrows. "Videogames?"

"Y-Yeah…"

"And 'Sort of'?"

"Oh, right, umm… I said the virus was sort of found… well… that's kind of the truth. You see, since the virus self-destructed instead of was removed, we _can_ find the computer that launched that particular virus, but we find out who created it. Don't get too excited! The virus was launched from a public library computer. Anyone could've brought a flash drive with the virus on it, plugged it in, and launch the virus."

Iris banged her fist against the table. "Which library?"

"Well… you know L's case?"

Iris raised her eyebrows as if saying, "Duh."

"It was launched from the library that the prime suspect, who L doesn't think is the criminal, visits often. Since they were trying to find info on L, who is investigating that case, well, it's pretty suspicious."

"Overly so."

"You still don't think that guy killed all those people? He doesn't have an alias, or not a good one, and all the evidence points to him."

"That's why."

"Sometimes, cases aren't super hard. Sometimes people are just stupid and kill others without thinking much about it."

"Matt! It's not him. L…"

"L needs to know about this?"

Iris nodded. "Immediately."

"L needs to know about what immediately?" Dr. Harriet asked, with the new doctor (Dr. Smith) close behind.

"We think whoever hacked into Iris's computer is linked to the case L is currently working on."

"And what makes you say that?" Dr. Smith asked, eyeing them suspiciously.

Iris glared at Matt, because they were supposed to be investigating this secretly.

His eyes widened for a moment, and stumbled, "Well, when I was setting up Firewall 13, I found out, by accident, I assure you Firewall 13 is very elaborate so I have to go to the smallest corners of the computer-"

"Just tell us already!" Dr. Smith snapped.

"I found out that the person who launched the virus did so from a public library that a suspect for his case visits often."

"How do you know about L's case?" Dr. Harriet asked.

"I went over there to hack into something for L, and since I was there and all, L told me about it."

"And how do you know that the suspect visits this library often without investigating thoroughly?"

"Oh, well, ummm… I was curious and bored?"

"You tell us, not the other way around."

"I was curious and bored."

"Then why didn't you turn in your homework this week?"

"How do you know that?" Matt asked, glancing guiltily at Iris, who rolled her eyes.

"Well, let's see… I was curious and bored." Dr. Harriet smirked.

"You researched me?" Matt gaped.

"I wanted to know who Iris was associating with. You seem to be smarter than your grades reflect. All they reflect is your laziness."

"That is completely irrelevant to out earlier conversation!"

"Oh, you want to go back to the earlier conversation? The one about the virus that you weren't supposed to investigate, but you did? Oh, and Firewall 13 isn't even a firewall is it?"

Matt glared at her. Dr. Smith glared at him and Iris. "You guys are in such trouble, I don't even know where to start!"

Dr. Harriet just sighed. "Ok. I'll let L deal with this. You can tell him about it after you tell him what you discovered."

Iris brightened immediately. "I'm going?"

"No, Iris, I'm sorry honey. You can't have a vacation so soon. You just had a really long one! Don't give me that look! My hands are tied."

Matt glanced at his friend. "Iris will need to be there when L decides how to punish her, though!"

Iris looked at him with a Is-that-all-you-can-come-up-with face.

Dr. Harriet grinned while Dr. Smith scowled. "I'm sorry Iris. You're staying here. L can give you your punishment through Matt. He is at a school for orphan geniuses. He can carry a message, I'm sure."

Iris matched Dr. Smith's face in a scowl.

Dr. Smith's face turned into a more pleasant form when he realized Iris was staying here. He gently put his hand on her shoulder and made an attempt to be sympathetic. "I'm sorry Iris, but it really is for the best. Like it or not, you are mentally unstable. You don't have time to be chasing after every little thing that pops up. That is what your brother is for. He'll take care of you."

Iris smirked. _He's really putting on a show here. That's probably the nicest thing I've heard him say. It's also the biggest lie. He doesn't care about my feelings! I'm pretty sure he just wants me as research material!_

However, due to her mental instability, she couldn't give a good retort without stumbling in the middle. Thus, she just rolled her eyes and began to formulate a plan that would hopefully, this time, not be revealed to the doctors (_I'm going to get you for that later, Matt._).


	6. Chapter 6

"Iris? Iris, where are you? We're back from dinner and brought you some of your favorite: spaghetti! Huh? Iris!" Dr. Harriet called out to an empty room. "Oh no, Iris! Don't tell me you sneaked off with Matt and went to see your brother, too?"

…

Matt glared at Iris, exasperated at her eagerness to kill herself. "Why couldn't you have just stayed home?"

Iris took this as a rhetorical question and smiled up as him cheekily.

He sighed and leaned back in his seat. "Oh well. I suppose I do owe you one. It's a good thing I'm old enough so that Roger can't accompany me into the airport, or you would be screwed. I still don't like the idea of you helping your brother out this much for the case. It could be dangerous!"

Iris gave Matt a quit-treating-me-like-a-baby look.

"I'm looking out for you! You should be thankful."

"We're only going… t-to… brother's."

"I know that your brother's place is safe, but you will start getting more involved in the case than you already are and that could cause some problems! You could get hurt!"

Iris groaned. Matt was starting to sound like her doctors. "Relax."

Matt scowled.

_Jeez, he's in a bad mood today. This will be a long flight._

…

Watari opened the door to greet Matt, but found Iris there as well. "Hello Matt, Iris. Incidentally, why is Iris here? I didn't receive any call that she would be here."

Matt glared at her. "Weeeelllll, she basically guilt-tripped me into taking her along to see you guys."

Watari sighed. "Alright, come on in, both of you. L's in the back."

Iris smirked and spirited to her brother.

L's reaction when he saw Iris again was very funny. He glanced, saw that she came in, and then went back to thinking for another minute. After that was done, he sighed, turned around, and called Iris over to him. "Hey, Iris! I've seen you recently. Which forces me to ask you: Why are you here? I am delighted, of course, but I thought Matt was coming here to tell me something which involved you guys disobeying your doctors, only to find that you came, too, which is disobeying your doctors even more."

Iris thought for a minute, grinning. "Matt explains."

A minute later, Matt walked through the door. "You know, I don't really like being your mouth either. It's not the fact that I have to explain everything that bothers me; it's the fact that you treat me like a servant. At least try to explain!"

"I'll fail." Iris moped. _If I can't talk very well, why should I even try to explain?_

As if Matt could read her thoughts, he said, "If you constantly think you can't do it, if you never try, you'll never get better."

What he said really struck home. _Maybe… I'm hindering myself?_

"Anyway, L, a virus attacked Iris's computer last week. I managed to stop it, but we didn't know who sent it and were ordered by Dr. Harriet and Dr. Smith to stop investigating. Iris, however, told me differently, so we set up another virus-like-thing in Iris's computer to find the virus. We found out that the virus was sent from a public library computer in a library that the person who you don't think is the murderer in your current case visits often. Oh, and the virus was looking for information on you and your sister, which is suspicious, since you are investigating that current case."

"When was the virus sent?"

"12:35 PM on Tuesday."

"Oh. Well, if it had been on Wednesday, we would know that the person who sent the virus is not our prime suspect, as I was interrogating him at the time, but since it was on Wednesday… well. That makes it even more certain in my mind that someone is trying to frame him."

"What if it _was _him?"

"No. I've talked to the man and what he says just doesn't fit. I really don't think he is the killer."

"Intuition? Intuition doesn't solve cases."

"Regardless, it doesn't make sense. I am 95% positive that he isn't the right man."

"What if you're wrong, L?"

"Then we would have wasted a lot of time, wouldn't we? However nothing has popped up that makes it _definite _that anyone did it. We need to keep searching. Oh, and Iris?"

"Hmm?"

"I solved your riddle, just now."

Her eyes widened in delight. "Really?"

"Yes. It's an interesting theory that the murderer used mirrors to kill his victims."

Matt furrowed his brow in confusion. "Wait, what was the riddle? And how do you kill someone with mirrors?"

"The riddle was a this: Two plus two is a fish. Four plus four is a pot with two handles. My brother plus my brother is not a rectangle, like some idiots think, but a square without a side. The wrong answer plus the wrong answer is candy. A bent slinky plus a bent slinky is a circle. You'll notice that the mirror image of each of the addends creates the sum. The 'my brother' part would be my name, L, which combined is a square, missing it's top side. The wrong answer would be X, and XX looks a bit like a piece of candy in a twist wrapper. A bent slinky is a half circle. I believe four is the only one that reflects upward, but when is does, it creates what looks like a whole rest, without being filled in. This could be seen as a pot with two handles. And you kill someone with mirrors, Matt, by reflecting a very strong laser off a mirror, through a window, and onto a person's head."

Matt made a face. "Wouldn't you feel that and wake up?"

"Not if the laser was so strong that it would instantly burn through your head."

"But wouldn't it burn through the pillow?"

"Well, the laser could be on a timer so that it only burns through the mass of a head and then stops. However, it makes a mark, and we've noticed it, but have been unable to identify the mark. The only thing it told us was that whatever burned the person did it while they were in bed. Either that, or someone meticulously tried to make it look like they were in bed."

"Oh. But anyway, now that you know how they kill their victims, can you solve the case?"

"Well, I can't solve it right away, but at least I know that this is something that occurs outside of a victim's window. We'll set up cameras around the remaining probable-victims-to-be's houses." Then L scowled.

"What?" Iris asked.

"…There are only two more weeks left until the murderer's list of potential victims runs out. Two more weeks that I will have to solve the case."

"You don't think the murderer will just start killing innocent people?" Matt inquired.

"No. I believe he'll want to continue to make it look like that one person was just killing all of his enemies."

"Could you continue to investigate after the killings have stopped?"

"Well… I can try, but it'll be difficult. If no one is committing a crime, it's hard to catch them, especially because they might move far away to reduce the chances of my finding them."

Matt frowned. "You're L. Pretty much everyone at school knows that you're working on a tough case. If you don't solve it, you'll lose everyone's confidence. I don't mean to put more stress on your shoulders, but if you don't solve every damn case you get, you'll lose your renown. Please, work really hard on this, ok? Iris and I should go."

"Wait."

"What is it?"

"First of all, I'm well aware of that, even if it was in the back of my subconscious. Second of all, you and Iris came here to get punished, right?"

"Um… well… you might say that." Matt mumbled.

"Ok then. Your punishment is that both of you don't get to see your friends, other than yourselves, of course, for two weeks. You don't get to go to school for two weeks, so you'll have a lot of catching up to do. You'll basically be in isolation for two weeks."

Matt raised his eyebrows, surprised. Iris grinned.

"Oh, and one more thing. You have to help me solve this case during those two weeks."


	7. Chapter 7

"Matt?"

"Um… yeah?"

"What are you doing?" L asked the redhead on the computer next to him.

"Building a fortress."

L sighed. "You're on Minecraft again, aren't you?"

"…Probably."

"Matt you're supposed to be looking over our computers and such to make sure there aren't any cyber attacks! Not playing videogames."

"Fine." He glumly quit and pulled up the software. His eyes widened. "Oh no!"

"What's wrong, Matt?"

"The cameras we put around the potential-victims' houses are being hacked into!"

L muttered to himself, "This is why you pay attention to these things. Anyway, I thought you put firewalls around them!"

"Umm… well… they're being hacked into with a software I created, and that only I _should _have access to… So basically, it's a really good software that can get around any of my firewalls…"

"What? I thought you protected those with more firewalls!"

"Well… I did. The only other person who _might_ be able to get into it would be Iris, because she knows of many of the firewalls that I put up around it, being my student. Either that, or someone's a better hacker than I am."

"Well, we can rule out Iris. But if someone's a better hacker than you are, then why wouldn't they just hack into the cameras directly?"

"I'm not sure. Let me check the differences between the firewalls between the cameras and my hacking software to see if I can find a weakness in the latter. Although, normally I would pay more attention to my hacking software, so I'm not sure what it could be."

Matt quickly typed in a code followed by his IP address, quickly accessing his computer from here. When he looked at the place where he stored his software (which was almost undetectable), he was astonished to see his firewalls were in tatters. However, they were destroyed in such a way that it appeared the person who took them down knew _exactly _how they were constructed, and the only person who could do that would be Matt. (Iris didn't know about _all_ of his firewalls. After all, though unlikely, she could use them against him in the future.) Even if you were better hacker than him, you couldn't know exactly how firewalls that he created were composed.

This meant that the person who did it would have had access to his computer when he created the firewalls, which was a long time ago (and a different computer). In fact, he didn't create all of his firewalls on one computer. Firewall 13, obviously, was made on a test computer, along with most of his viruses. The other firewalls were made on various computers that Matt immediately destroyed afterwards. This being said, he had no idea how anyone would be able to destroy them from their core, unless they were so elementary that someone could just blast right through them. Matt shuddered as he thought of this. Someone who made his firewalls look _elementary_? They would be formidable, at least on a cyber scale.

Matt continued to analyze his firewalls and software until he found a weakness he had not seen before, or even considered. Since Wammy's House gave him his computer, it was, technically, a part of their system, with only minimal firewalls in between. Now, Matt put really high tech firewalls around the Wammy's House system long ago, but assuming someone could get through those firewalls, they would be able to get into Matt's computer with little trouble, as long as they knew how the system worked. It would take only take a short time to learn how the system worked without causing alarm, maybe a few months.

The only real way to get into Wammy's system without breaking down firewalls that were almost as high tech as Matt's computer's were would be to have access to the computers of Wammy's House. That would apply to any of the staff there, and possibly a student, but the students would still have to go through a number of firewalls before they could get to the core and branch off to Matt's computer.

About 10 minutes after he started looking into the matter, Matt spoke. "L? Can you get me a record of all of the staff/students who came to Wammy's House since you began the case? Especially those who might be good with computers."

"What? Why Wammy's House?"

"Because my computer is linked to that system. If they could get into the system, they could get into my computer relatively easily. Then, they would only have to do a computer sweep, find the section of my computer with the software in it, and access it with the password they found in the system and use my software. After that, it's a simple matter of looking at the firewalls I put up from the inside and breaking them down to make it look like they blasted through."

"Why would they want to do that?"

"Because they would know I would recognize that the software that they were using was mine, and they wanted to scare me by making it look like I was an novice hacker compared to them."

"What if you really are?"

"Well, that is a possibility, but I think not. After all, the firewalls in between my computer and the system were breached, but in a less obvious way. Actually, it looks like they're novice compared to me. Still, it was a good idea to go the roundabout route. I didn't think of that, after all."

"Wait, so do they have all of the software that you use to hack into things?"

Matt grimaced. "Unfortunately."

"Oh dear. We're doomed. Anyway, that aside, no offense, but can't you get that list yourself?"

Matt blinked. "I _could, _but it's against the school rules and such, and since I'm here with you, the reason the school exists, it seems a bit… I don't know, arrogant?"

L smirked. "Matt you have full permission to use the Wammy's House system in order to solve this case."

"Oh. In that case, I'm sorry I disturbed you. Get right back to thinking then."

"Alright. Actually, I'd like to look at that list with you, now that you've brought it up."

"Oh, ok."

A minute later, they had a list. It wasn't that big, and consisted of one student and Iris's doctors. "You don't hire people often, do you?"

"Well, they have to go through excessive background screening, so…"

Matt frowned. "The student is highly unlikely. I'd bet that it'd be one of Iris's doctors."

"Well… I guess that was the conclusion I thought of immediately, too. After all, what other staff member gets switched periodically. However, since no one outside of the doctors that come (which are hand-picked) and Roger, Watari, and I know even about Iris's existence."

"What about me?"

"Well, you, too, I suppose. However, it wasn't intended that you would know about her."

"I bet she's glad that I do."

"She probably is. Now be quiet, I'm trying to think."

Matt sighed. "Why don't you bring Iris here and ask if any of her doctors were suspicious looking? She's not doing much, just taking a break."

"Oh. Right. Ok, let's do that."

A minute later, Iris came in, listened to the whole situation, and looked very grumpy indeed. She took a deep breath and tried to say all that she had on her mind, like Matt advised her to. "I hate all of my doctors… so…"

"Anyone suspicious in particular?"

Iris shrugged. She didn't like questions.

"Oh, sorry, I mean we would love to hear about it if you think someone was suspicious."

"That's almost the same…"

"As a question? You're right, but it's not, is it? It's a fine distinction. Such as if someone got motion sickness from transportation, they wouldn't get it from riding piggy back on a friend, for example, because it is a friend, not transportation."

"Umm… I'm not sure it works like that, Matt." L sighed.

"Well, it should. But anyway, that's what we would like to hear, so if you can tell us we would be super happy."

"Last doctor took a leave of absence."

"…Ok, but did he seem to be a computer geek?"

"No."

"Then how is that helpful?"

"No one else did."

"Maybe he got really sick or something. It's not what we're looking for. Can you think harder? Oh, wait, sorry. Please think harder."

Iris sighed impatiently. "That's all!" She then glared furiously at L, willing him to understand her thoughts and explain to her apparent bone-headed friend. He didn't seem to get it. "H-How are… they picked?"

L looked at her quizzically. "They are hand picked by us. We look for people who are studying this type of thing, and do a background check."

"How was the… current… one...?"

"I don't understand."

"Ask Roger!"

L blinked. "Watari, please get Roger on the phone."

"Yes sir."

"Hello?" Roger's voice floated through the phone. "To what do I owe this honor, L?"

"Was Iris's current interchangeable doctor picked in any special way?"

"What? Why do you ask?"

"Can you please just answer the question? It's rather complicated, and we have had a security breach, so this conversation may be listened in on."  
"_What?_"

"Again, it's a long story. Please just answer the question."

"B-But… M-Ma-"

"I forbid you from saying his name!" L thundered. "We don't want anyone to know anything else. Just answer my question."

"I'm sorry. Well, not particularly."

Iris spoke up. "Previous doctor said…"

"Oh! Right! The previous doctor recommended him. Hey! That doctor took a leave of absence, too, so what if-"

"Thank you, Roger. That will be all."

"O-Oh. Right. You're welcome, as always. Goodbye."

"Goodbye."

There was silence after the phone hung up. At that moment, everyone understood what happened. They understood that the previous doctor was easily swayed for small, seemingly unimportant tasks with money. They understood that he was bribed to recommend the current doctor. They understood that the current doctor was one of the ones who at least worked with murderer. And they understood that everyone understood that which Iris had thought of as soon as the situation was explained to her.

Finally, Matt broke the silence. "How'd you know the doctor was recommended by the previous one? Or rather, do you mind telling us? Wait, that won't work, either. Hmm…"

"Hunch." Iris interrupted Matt's attempts to not ask a question.

"A hunch?" Matt asked incredulously.

Iris nodded.

L smirked. "I guess intuition does solve cases sometimes, huh, Matt? You need intuition to guide you to find evidence, then evidence to prove someone guilty."

Matt grinned. "I guess I was wrong. Huh. It feels strange. I've never been wrong before."

"You've been wrong on tests. You're only number three." L pointed out.

"Oh, no I purposely made those mistakes. Otherwise, Mello would hate me, and I couldn't have that. Although…" He sighed. "I may just rise to the top anyway."

Iris furrowed her brow. "What's wrong?"

"I'll tell you later. Right now, we need to go catch ourselves a criminal."

**A/N: You guys get a long chapter! And two days in a row, too! Plus, a different anime reference! You're welcome. Please tell me how I'm doing! Happy reading! Oh, and I'll update Ivy soon. Hopefully.**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: I want to say that this chapter will have a bit of more-than-usual swearing. If you don't like swearing, sorry, please scan over it. Enjoy the chapter! Comments are always appreciated! Oh, and apparently, Dr. Smith is British. And quite rude when angry. :D No offense, British people, but I'm pretty sure you guys are the only ones that say 'bloody' when cussing. **

* * *

"What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"We're arresting you, _Dr. _Smith under suspicion for infiltrating Wammy's House and working with a mass murderer."

"Are you bloody insane? Iris put this into your head, didn't she? You know why she has doctors! She's a bit insane herself! And the fact that she hates us doctors would make me the perfect bloody target! You shouldn't listen to her; that damn girl's craz-"

"That's enough!" L's eyes blazed. He couldn't stand people being rude to her sister. "Iris just has a little speech problem. There is nothing wrong with her brain functions." He continued calmly, but with smoldering anger beneath his controlled actions. "In fact, she's probably smarter than many other people. She is my sister, after all. Also, we found you because of a certain person who did a really awful job of hacking into Matt's computer, not because of a whim of my sister. We're not that stupid."

Smith narrowed his eyes, resentful, as he was the one to hack into Matt's computer. "I'm a far better hacker than you could ever be, bastard!"

"Oh, so it wasn't you who hacked into our system? Funny, I would've thought that they would send their best. Could you tell us who it was, then?" Matt couldn't resist speaking up.

Smith was infuriated. "One of these days, boy…"

"One of these days you'll tell us who you're working with." Matt smirked. L gave him a warning look, which said, 'What is wrong with you? Just listen!'

"Of course I won't! B-Because I'm not working with anyone!"

L interjected before Matt could infuriate Smith further and possibly cause him to cease speaking at all. "But you can't be the murderer (people were dying while you were still here), and you already protested when we mentioned that you hacked into Matt's computer, so we know you did that."

"How do you know that whoever hacked into Matt's system works with this bleedn' murderer?"

"Well, first of all, it's pretty strange to call yourself 'whoever'." Matt, smirking confidently, began before L could. L glared at him. However, Matt continued. "And second of all, the software you took from my computer was used to stop our cameras from recording the murderer. That means that they're on the same side."

Smith gasped, furious. "That damn bastard! He promised he wouldn't use it against you guys!"

L raised his eyebrows. "We're your only opponents in this case. Who else would he use it against?"

"I dunno, some other bloody problem that comes with trying to convince everyone you're not a bleedn' criminal."

"Oh, so he's not known as a criminal?"

"D-Did I say that?"

L continued as if uninterrupted. "And he's not a hermit either, otherwise no one would question him about it. He probably works in a scenario that forces him to have a background check done, such as Wammy's House. However, since Wammy's House is in England and the murders are being done in America, we can presume that he's not here, especially since he needed to send you in to infiltrate us. Watari! Find out how many places in America need to have a background check done at least semi-regularly."

"Yes, sir."

"Matt and Iris, please come with me. Since your two weeks aren't done yet, we'll return to America."

Dr. Harriet, who had been standing, watching bemusedly, moved as though to stop Iris, but then thought better of it. "Um… L?"

"Yes?"

"Will Iris be alright? She's had such a long break…"

"Yes, this is her punishment, after all."

"Huh? Oh, well, ok. Sorry to bother you. Carry on."

Iris smiled and waved. "Thanks, Doctor!"

Dr. Harriet beamed. "You're welcome, sweetie. Though I don't really know why you're thanking me…"

…

Matt and Iris were currently sitting in Iris's room, moping. They weren't allowed to be a part of the interrogation, or even watch. This infuriated them, especially because L wasn't _that_ mean when interrogating people. Nonetheless, they were to sit and wait for L to come back with information.

Matt sighed. He might as well take advantage of this situation and tell Iris why he has been over-confident, over-excited, and completely not himself lately. He was trying to forget. "Hey, Iris?"

"Hmm?"

"You know how I've been a little… strange lately?"

Iris nodded. She had noticed, but didn't say anything, for fear it wasn't a good sign.

"Well, that's because it was either that, or break down pathetically. I would have been completely sour and grumpy and, well… I decided to the former seemed nicer."

Iris noticed the hesitation in his voice, how carefully he kept his emotions in check, and recalled their conversation earlier._ "Oh, no I purposely made those mistakes. Otherwise, Mello would hate me, and I couldn't have that. Although…" Matt sighed. "I may just rise to the top anyway."_

Iris's voice was savage when she spoke, filled with hatred for anyone who would hurt her friend. "Mello?"

The fact that she jumped to that conclusion so quickly surprised Matt, but not as much as her tone of voice.

"You don't have to be so angry…"

"He hurt you!"

"Well, not really. Not yet. But, I'm pretty sure he's gonna."

This made Iris a bit confused. "What?"

Matt looked down at his feet, saddened and a bit embarrassed. "Ok, so I mustered the courage to ask what he thought about gays right before we were going to leave for your brother's, and he said that… that-" He faltered. "Sorry. He said that they were foul things who… who should burn in hell."

Iris gasped, enraged. "That bastard…"

Matt smiled weakly. "Jeez, Iris, you can barely speak and still you're cussing. Anyway, after he said that, my face must've given me away, because the next minute, Mello asked if I was gay in a kind of funny voice. I quickly denied it, but then zipped up my suitcase and walked right out of the room, despite the fact that I wasn't finished packing my videogames, so I'm afraid I as good as said yes. After all, I always bring my videogames. Anyway, because of L's 'punishment', I haven't seen him since, thankfully. He's my roommate, though, so it's only a matter of time. Oh, and I don't blame you in the slightest, Iris, it's my fault for fucking it up, but what on Earth am I going to do?"

"Room-change?"

"I'd just confirm his fears, even if they hadn't been already, and then he'd beat me up after class."

"Don't go to class?"

"Really, Iris? Don't go to class?"

"Learn with me!"

"Even if the school would let me, he'd come looking for me."

Iris looked at Matt as if he'd gone insane. "You love him? Why?!"

Matt snorted. "He's a good guy, if you get to know him. If he feels strongly about something, though, don't get in his way. If you do, well, run."

"Like you." She pointed out.

"Oh stop it. I'm not a coward, but I know that if Mello attacked me, I wouldn't be able to stand my ground like I normally do, and then he'll figure out that not only am I gay, but I'm gay for him. Then it'll just get worse, and I'll get a black eye every day."

Iris considered this, and then hugged her upset friend as hard as she could. Talk to him."

"You want me to confront him?"

"Not… confront…"

"Sorry, that was a bad choice of a word. Still, you want me to talk to him?"

"Alone."

"What are you, crazy? Alone? He'll beat the shit out of me!"

Iris sighed. "True feelings can't be expressed if others are around. It was possible there was a miscommunication. By the time our two weeks are up, he will have had plenty of time to cool down. You have been his best friend for years, Matt. The fact that you're gay won't change that." The words flowed from her mouth so perfectly, that Iris couldn't believe that she said it.

"Iris? Why should I meet him alone? You'd better give me a damn good reason." Matt repeated.

Oh, right. She _didn't _say it. Scowling, she managed to get out, "Good… reason."

"What?" He looked positively bewildered.

"Can't say!" Iris hissed.

"You don't know why I should face him alone? Then there's no point!"

"Matt!" Iris's face was irritated, her voice commanding. "Can't… say… but there's… good… reason."

Understanding came over Matt's face. "Oh… I'm sorry, Iris. I forgot your speaking limitations for a moment."

Iris rolled her eyes. "Ok? Trust me."

"Fine, but if I die, it's your fault." Iris was pleased to see a slight grin on Matt's face as he said this.


	9. Chapter 9

Finally, after what seemed like forever (it was only four hours), L returned. "What did you find out?" Matt asked eagerly.

L sighed. "We found out that the murderer hired this person to work for him. Smith knows almost nothing of him. It also explains why the murderer would betray Smith in using your software against us. Though it's good that he's out of Wammy's House now, Smith was a dead end."

Iris scowled. This was getting better and better. There was only one more week to find the murderer, and they were at a serious disadvantage with the cameras, since the murderer has Matt's viruses.

Matt grimaced. "How are we going to find the murderer?"

Iris furrowed her brow. "In person?"

"You want to go sneak around someone's house in an attempt to find the murderer?"

Iris nodded.

"You are officially insane. The murderer is going to be even more cautious, since this victim is his last one! He'll expect us to be there."

L smirked. "Or he'll expect us to expect that he'll expect us to be there."

Matt raised his eyebrows. "If you want to do that, you'll just go around in circles. After all, he could expect us to expect that he'll expect us to expect that he'll expect us to be there."

Iris shook her head, clearing it. "Too many expects!"

"In short, we can't expect too far ahead." Matt summarized.

L frowned. "Fair enough, but the question is whether he expects us to be there or whether he thinks that we'll expect him to expect us to be there. How far is he thinking ahead?"

"We could just assume the worst and go in cautiously." Watari, who was watching until now, suggested.

L tilted his head, thinking. "Ok. Let's do that then. Iris, you and Matt stay here, ok?"

"NO!" Iris shouted.

"Are you crazy?" Matt yelled as well. "You keep us away from our friends for two weeks, and then expect us to do nothing?"

L sighed. "First of all, you haven't been away from your friends: Matt is Iris's only friend, and Matt's only friend other than Iris is Mello, and I'm pretty sure you're fighting with him, so…"

Matt blanched. "H-How did you…?"

"You've been acting differently. And also, you haven't done nothing, you've helped me out with the case. A lot. Your deductive reasoning skills and your hacking skills have been incredibly helpful. Having more than one mind look at something helps me not see something as set in stone when in reality it's different."

"I don't care!" Iris snarled.

"Yeah! You can't leave us behind! We fly back to America, you leave us here for four hours because we can't be a part of an interrogation, have a short conversation with us that pretty much does nothing, and then leave us here again while you go off hunting for a murderer?"

"Look, it's very dangerous. I've been doing this a long time. I know the risks and have been able to avoid them so far. It'll just be a burden to me if you come. I'll have to worry about you constantly, and never get to concentrate."

Iris's heart nearly broke. _He thinks that his worrying is one-sided? He thinks that I don't worry about him, too? That I don't have to? Just because I'm younger doesn't mean I can't be concerned about him! Every time he gets himself into a dangerous situation is heart-wrenching! I try to help out with his cases so that he doesn't have to get into danger! And yet, this time, because of my thoughtless suggestion, he's going to put his life on the line _again!_ It's all my fault! I need to talk him out of this! I _need _to go with him to make sure he's safe! _"NO!" Iris's voice broke, releasing a scream. "Y-You can't…" she sobbed. "You can't!"

L furrowed his brow in confusion. "I'm sorry, Iris. Was I making you feel left out? You've been really helpful, I promise, but this is really dangerous. I can't get you into this kind of stuff. No offense, but you're still young."

Iris snapped. This was not what she wanted to hear. _It's dangerous. _Iris bit her lip, holding back a scream, trying to contain her tears. _You're young. _Far, far too young.

Too young to help your brother. Too young to help your friend. Too young beat up the little punk who was messing with his heart. Too young to look after someone else. Too young to even be on your own. Too young to get away from your doctors. _No. They're not doctors. They're nannies. I'm too young to accept and get help from doctors. _And, most importantly, too young to speak.

To speak is to help, to soothe, to fill someone with joy, to convince someone they'll be all right, or to convince someone to stay away from a situation where they won't be all right. She was too young to do any of that.

Iris stood rigid, fed up with all of the numerous problems that blanked her life in a shadow of hurt, confusion, and worry. Her little hands were in fists. Her small jaw was clenched. Her tiny feet stood apart. Her young head was turned down; her angry face shadowed. And despite all the emotions whirling around inside her, despite all the things she wanted to blurt out, to yell and scream and cry into her brother's face, despite all of the frustration built up inside her, she uttered but one word. "Fine."

Iris whirled around and ran, as fast as she could back to her room. She turned, locked the door, and threw herself on the bed, weeping into her pillow. She didn't even want to see Matt right now.

A few moments later, just as she expected, there were knocks on her door. Numerous times. Matt shouted frequently, yelling at her to open up or else, but she ignored him. She ignored L trying to speak with her. After all, she can't talk. Why should she try?

_Matt- "If you constantly think you can't do it, if you never try, you'll never get better."_

"Ah shut up!" Iris screamed, both to her head and the persistent knocks on the door. She didn't want these feelings. She didn't want to be human. She wished she were a bug- maybe an ant, or a spider. Then humans, even little kids, could just walk up to her and squish her. And she wouldn't have to deal with worry. She wouldn't have to deal with pain. Just, _Squish! _and she'd be dead.

_Oh if only I were a squished ant! _Iris moaned wistfully.

Matt spoke tentatively to the door. "Hey, Iris? L's going on ahead. I'm going to stay here with you, ok?"

_Why should you stay here with me? I sent brother to his death. I'm despicable. I should just die._

Actually, that sounded rather appealing. If she died, she wouldn't have to worry about being too young. She wouldn't have to worry about her brother dying, because when he did, she would see him again. She wouldn't have to worry about Mello being mean to Matt. After all, if Mello hated Matt, the Matt could just kill himself and join Iris and L, who were already dead.

_Yes. I should just die. I should do that right now._

Iris numbly sat up. She walked over to the closet in a dazed nightmare. Belt, belt, where are you? Oh, a scarf. That'll work. She looked up at the ceiling. It was so far away… good thing she had bunk beds.

Iris climbed up the ladder and tied the scarf around her fan in a loop. She wondered briefly if dying would hurt. Either way, it wouldn't really matter, would it? She deserved pain. She had caused so much of it.

After all, Mello probably really did hate Matt and would beat him up when Matt faced him alone. Pain. For her best friend. For her only friend. She had caused it.

After all, when L goes to face the murderer, he'll probably die along with Watari. Pain. For her dearest brother, who always looked out for her. She had caused it.

After all, when L dies, all of Wammy's House will be overcome in grief. Near will succeed L. Mello will kill himself for being in second. Pain. For her best friend's love. For her entire school. She had caused it.

After all, when L and Mello die, Matt will kill himself as well. The only thing left behind of him will be his software, in the hands of a violent mass-murderer. She had dragged Matt into this mess. She had caused that pain.

_I'm an abomination. Because I exist, someone was allowed to enter Wammy's House and get Matt's software. Because I exist, my dear brother, the great L, has received so much pain. And so has everyone else around me. Because I exist, people around me have to struggle to understand me, to make me feel better. I'm worthless. It's useless. I'm going to go to hell. Huh. I guess I won't see my brother after all, then. Oh well, I deserve it. Time to die._

She leaned forward, fitting the make-shift noose around her neck, and jumped off of her bunk bed ladder.

** A/N: AHHHH! NO, IRIS! *sniffles. I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry. It's a most depressing chapter, isn't it? And then to cut it off right here… I must be a devil! O.O But don't worry! ;D There's more to come! Iris's tale isn't quite fully told! Hang in there, for now. Also, please review! Tell me how you like my depressing-writing side! …It's very different from what I'm used to. So much more… depressing. -.-**


	10. Chapter 10

_Bang! _"Huh?" Matt wondered. "What was that?" He cautiously crept to the front of the building. Then, Matt saw on one of the security cameras what could only be one person... the mass murderer. Too bad he covered himself in clothing so Matt couldn't see his appearance. He was overriding all of the systems, hacking into the high security building, and coming to give a blow to L. With Matt's software.

"Shit!" Matt cursed under his breath. "No, damn, shit, shit, shit! Damn you! Damn myself while I'm at it! It's my fault he has that software, after all… Arg!"

Matt exhaled quickly, ran over to the computers, and tried to make a counter-attack. It was hard, though. His software, the software that he agonized over for so long, the software that he spent hours reading the codes to over and over again, thinking up every possibility that he might encounter, something that would beat everyone else no matter what, was too strong for his quick, thought-of-on-the-spot codes. The viruses were even protected with firewalls themselves so that when they were in use, it was virtually impossible to stop them. If Matt hadn't created the software himself, he would've been done for.

As it was, he was struggling to try and reboot the security system. If that mass-murderer got into the central part of the building… _Anything could happen._

Matt glanced over at the computer screen and cursed. The murderer was in the next room. He quickly picked up his laptop, leaving the other computers, and ran towards the living space. He barred the door as best he could while sitting down in the hallway.

Matt started, remembering that Iris was still in her room. She had no idea this was happening. He ran over to her door, knocking heavily on it. "Iris! Stay in there! The murderer is in the building! Keep your door locked, ok?"

Without waiting for a response, Matt sat down opposite her door and started typing, trying, failing, to put the security system into action, or at least disable his viruses. He heard the murderer walking around in the next room, examining the computers, gaining a map to the building, walking towards the living space.

The murderer tried to open the door, but failed. "Damn! I'll have to use it…"

Matt heard the sound of wood singeing, of metal melting in an instant. Matt gasped as a red laser burned through the door, going through to the wall on the other side, which charred where the laser ran over it. A second later, the lock was broken, and the chairs that Matt had put against the door collapsed. The murderer threw open the door and walked in, scowling at Matt. "Why hello, there. You must be the hacker who kindly donated these viruses to me. I must thank you for that." He smirked, and pointed the laser at Matt's head. He turned on the little aiming light, which showed you where your laser would end up when you turned it on. It was on Matt's forehead.

"Oh, don't worry. I won't kill you. After all I need someone to carry a message to Mr. L, don't I? And I'll also need a hostage. However, you don't hold _quite _enough sentimental value to L. I'll need to take his dear sister instead." The murderer's voice was teasing, like he was talking to a five-year-old. He had a slight smile on his lips.

He pushed a button on his laser, and a blue light flashed to Matt. Matt slumped to the floor. "Did that hurt, Mr. Matt? You're only stunned, though, so you'll remain conscious to receive my message. Now, which door is Iris's? I'll start with the one you're sitting across from. It seems to me that you would protect your pitiful friend to the end."

_No. _Matt thought, protesting, trying to move, trying to overcome the stupid paralyzer. _No! Iris needs me! I. Have. To. Move! _He flicked his eyes over to the lock that was being melted. _NO! Move stupid arms! Strangle that man! Iris needs me! Iris… Iris needs me… and I can't help… _He was overcome by a wave of despair. _I'm… useless… _

The door opened, revealing Iris hanging from her ceiling fan. "Oh?" The murderer chuckled. "Looks like you weren't nice enough to her, little hacker. She tried to kill herself."

Tears jumped to Matt's eyes. _Iris… was dead? No! That can't be! Iris… killed herself? WHY? What did I do wrong? What did we say? What did we do? Why is she so depressed she can't understand that we need her in this world? Why is she… dead?_ Matt's entire body protested the thought. _Wait… stop, think. How long has she been in there? Not long enough to die, even if she hanged herself right away. She's still alive… I think..._

The murderer walked over to Iris, checking her pulse. "Ooooh! She's still alive! Just unconscious. This makes it so much easier to take her, then. Much better. Much less pain. I'll be taking her now." He unhooked Iris from the scarf and put her under her arm, carrying her like a rag doll.

"Now, little hacker. Watch as I carry the girl out, and give L this message when he returns from his foolish quest. Tell him that if he starts to hunt me, she dies. If he solves this case, she dies. If he does anything to come after me, or her, she dies. If L so much as slides a toe into my comfort zone, she dies. He will close this case. He will never start it again. If he doesn't, you know what'll happen." The murderer smiled cruelly. "Oh, and you don't have to worry about others coming after me. I just have this one last person to kill, and then I'm done. I'll quit murdering people. Unless, of course, L comes after me. Then, I'll murder her. So, both of you… behave." The last word was uttered with such malice, Matt shivered.

"Bye, now, little hacker! If I find someone really good hacking into the firewalls that I stole from you, she'll die!" He promised, walking out the door, waving his hand in farewell. Huh. Ironic.

Matt stopped trying to resist the paralysis and sat there, slumped for hours. There was nothing that he could do. He literally couldn't move. Plus, even if he could move, he doubted he would. He felt totally defeated. He didn't do anything to help. L was right. He was just a nuisance, making everyone worry all the time. He was the one who lost those viruses. They were _his _and he let their archenemy get them. Great. It's his fault that Iris was in this predicament.

Matt mentally shook his head. _Stop thinking like that! It's not my fault… it's the murderer's fault. I can't get depressed. I've felt what it was like to see my friend hanging around a noose… just now! It's horrible! I can't kill myself, for Mello's sake… because… because, even if he hates gays… he's still my best friend! _

It was getting rather uncomfortable to be in one position on the floor, so Matt sat up. Huh? Since when could he do that…? He must've gotten over the paralysis and not realized it.

Matt stood up, stretching. It was still a little difficult to move his fingers as freely as he normally did- it would probably take him about half an hour before he could clean the system of the viruses the murderer undoubtedly put on there.

Until then, he occupied himself with surveying the damage and trying to fix it. Great. The murderer destroyed L's American base. America was where L had the most cases. That's why L had a base here.

By the time he fixed everything up as best he could, his fingers were back to normal, so he got on the computers and swept them for viruses. There were several, and all of them were Matt's. Sighing, Matt quickly got rid of all of the viruses, making sure the computer was clean. He then looked a little more thoroughly- some of his spyware were very good at hiding. After about an hour, he decided that there wasn't anything else on it, and proceeded to turn the security system back on.

When Matt rebooted it, it started to go out of control, since it had been fending off a cyber attack right before it shut down. The hallway filled with lasers, the doors snapped shut and locked themselves (except for the ones that the murderer burned through), and the entire building went into lockdown. Matt sighed under the flashing red light above him. "You're a little late, you know that?" He typed in some more codes, calming the system down.

Finally, when he completely reorganized the security system, rechecked the computers for viruses/spyware (twice), and even rearranged the pillows on the couches that had been knocked off, Matt looked at the phone, resigned for the worst.

_Buzz… Buzz… _"Hello?" Watari's voice floated through.

Matt sighed. "Both of you get back here right now. There's absolutely nothing you can or should do until I give you information that I'm only comfortable giving you face to face. Forget about the case for the moment."

Watari sounded a bit confused. "O-Ok. We're on our way."

_Beep. _Matt sighed again, hanging up. It was going to be hard to tell L something that he knew he'd hate to hear. If he were in L's position… well… he'd loathe being in L's position.

About thirty minutes later, he heard L and Watari come inside. He hadn't even played videogames while he was waiting; he was too busy trying to think of a way for him to phrase this. In one of them he just let L figure it out based on his intellect. But, of course, L would think Iris died, so he couldn't do that.

"Hey, Matt. What's up? Why are some of the doors burned through?"

"L, I'm going to say this once. You are very smart. Use your head. I just want to say one thing: Iris isn't dead."

L blinked. His eyes glazed over for a minute as his mind whirled, trying to figure out what happened. When L came back to the present (about 10 seconds later), his eyes were filled with panic. "Where is she?"

"She's with the person you were hunting."

L grasped the back of the couch, leaning on it heavily. "She's… what?" he choked.

"She's a hostage. The murderer told me to tell you that if you make any sort of move against him, she'll die. I'm only alive to tell you that message."

L put a hand to his mouth, and slumped down, sitting heavily on the ground, not supported by his legs for once. His brow was furrowed and his eyes were filled with pain.

"Oh, and L? I really don't want to tell you, but I think you have a right to know… Iris tried to commit suicide before the murderer came. He actually, in a way, saved her from dying." Matt's voice shook as he said this. "The scarf is still tied to the fan. I couldn't bear to touch it."

L shed one tear, a single tear, for Iris. "Why… why was she depressed?" he asked, fearing the worst answer- that it was his fault.

"I don't know. The murderer captured her unconscious. I was stunned during this. He used his laser to burn through the locks. Apparently it also had a built in tazer. But, I assure you, it's not your fault. If anything, it's because of me… I was there, and yet I had no idea how upset she was…" _She's helped me so much, too. And the one time she broke, I didn't even know she was really upset… I'm an awful friend._

Watari, who had been anxiously watching L, pain showing through his eyes as well, spoke up. "It wasn't either of your faults. She didn't tell us she was depressed. We just thought she was upset. Don't blame yourselves. Instead, focus on finding her."

"The murderer will kill her if we go after her!" Matt cried.

"We'll do it carefully, quietly, discreetly, then." L stood up shakily. He took a deep, shuddering breath. Watari put his hand on L's shoulder. "I'm ok." L mumbled. Then he stood up. "It might take a week, it might take a year. I might never achieve it and you'll have to continue without me, Matt. But I swear- we will get Iris back alive, no matter what!"

Matt smirked. "Sure, crazy man. Lead on!"

* * *

**A/N: I never actually said Iris died, did I? She just gets captured by a mass murderer. It's a big difference. :P **


	11. Chapter 11

"You're going to work on this case, L? Even though we haven't found Iris yet?" Watari asked.

"If I don't take up a case soon, the murderer will get suspicious. Please go to the meeting and inform them that I'll be taking this one. I don't want them to bother straining themselves, as it looks like only someone of my caliber could complete it."

"Very well."

"Speaking of which, any news of Iris?"

"None so far."

"Ok." L looked down, upset. He knew it was probable that she was dead, but he just couldn't accept that fact. She can't be dead. Not Iris! However, the logical part of his mind had moved on, knowing that the murderer of that case probably discovered them and killed her by now. He sighed. When would this end?

…

The members of the meeting were, as usual, shocked to see that L was amongst them. "You'd think they'd handle it better by now," he chuckled humorlessly to himself.

He spoke louder. "I will be taking over this case from now on. You don't need to help me."

One man spoke up. "Are you sure? We heard that the last case you were working on never was solved." Unease and muttering swept across the room. He dared to speak up against L?

"How do you know this?" L asked, rather sharply. He had not released the information, to prevent this very thing from happening.

The commander smirked. "It's kind of a big deal. It's the first case ever that you couldn't solve. Of course everyone would know about it."

L observed the rest of the room. They seemed a little shocked, as if they weren't aware of this fact, but didn't want to speak up, sure that they were the only one who was unaware of L's shortcoming. He smirked. You just made a very stupid move.

He debated saying the case was still in progress, but no, that was too risky. What if... that man wasn't hired? He could be the real murderer. Hmm... it would explain why he had to hide his past as a criminal. Police commanders can't commit crimes, much less murder people!

He cleared his throat, to answer the room's disquiet. Better make it seem like it wasn't something top secret, too. "Well, if I must say, that was one case in the many I have solved so far. Perhaps one of the other two best detectives will take it up, however difficult, as the murderer has stopped murdering. However, it is nothing you need concern yourselves over. It was one case of many. I assure you, if I will need your help, I will tell you."

"But you didn't ask for our help on this last case!" someone else cried.  
L sighed. "I am aware of that fact. That is because I am sure that you wouldn't have been helpful. I'll say one thing: it was an unique situation. It will not happen again. The rest is confidential and is not to be concerned over by police officers." His words were biting, insulting them. If L couldn't do it, what help would they be? The disquiet settled down. Finally. "I will be going now." Watari walked out, and quickly went back to L. He was sure to take notice of who had spoken out against L, remembering their names and faces.

…

Watari entered the room to find L sitting in his signature way, grinning to himself. "Watari, please get Matt right away."

"I already did, sir."

"Oh really? Excellent! When will he get here?"

"In about a day."

"A day?"

"Yes. It takes time to travel from London to America."

L sighed impatiently. "Very well. In the meantime, do you remember the names of the people who spoke?"

"Yes."

"Excellent. What are they?"

"The one who brought up the case was named Commander Samuel Frost. The other one was just a regular police officer, Ms. Amanda Kane."

"Send that information to Matt right away, please."

"Of course." As Watari left to go email Matt, he paused. "What if the murderer discovers we have a lead on him? What if he…?"

L tilted his head thinking, before answering softly. "She's been away for a year. I don't think she'll be able to take it much longer, and, if she hasn't already, she may succeed in killing herself. After all, she tried to do just that before the murderer saved her, as funny as that sounds. I - This hurts to think about, of course, but I think she'd want us to come, as discretely as possible. Remember, all he has is himself, Matt's old software, and the information he can get from the police, presumably. Since Matt has new, better software now, I think we'll… we'll be ok, won't we?"

"...I don't know, sir."

L sighed. "Of course you don't." He didn't say this exasperatedly, though, more like he should know better to ask such childish questions.

…

Matt set down his phone, his heart pounding. A lead. We FINALLY have a lead! Iris! He jumped up, throwing together suitable luggage for who-knows-how-long and raced out the door. He finally got to Roger's office. "Roger! Watari called me out to America; I have to go right now… oh hello, Mello."

"Hey."

Apparently Mello was in Roger's office because he beat Near up again. It had been happening a lot more recently, and Matt had to wonder if that was because Mello wished he could be punching someone else, someone who was maybe gay, instead. Of course, Matt had seen Mello many times, as they were roommates, but they didn't talk as much, or as easily, as before. However, Mello hadn't done anything yet, thank god. The only reason was probably because he didn't want to believe it… Matt shook his head, clearing his thoughts.

Roger blinked several times, trying to make sense of what Matt just said. "Excuse me, could you repeat that?"

Matt sighed. Could he not feel the urgency, here? "Watari called me. I need to go to America. Now."

"Oh, right… how do I know that you aren't lying?"

"Didn't Watari tell you that I had permission to go there at any time until further notice? He doesn't even have to call me first."

"Oh… well… ok. Come on then. Let's go. But I need to finish with Mello first."

Matt glared at Roger. "I'm sorry, sir, but I'm afraid we don't have any time. I need to get a plane now." His words were clipped, clearly expressing his anger.

Roger responded with the same tone of voice. "Well, I'm sorry if being L's favorite has made you think you're all that, but you are a student, and will be patient."

Matt broke. "Someone's life is on the line here, you know!" He shouted, heedless of Mello sitting there, astonished, and Roger, who could very well give him detention.

"Well, I'm sorry to hear that…" Roger broke off, looking at Matt seriously for the first time. "Are you serious?"

"Yes! Now we need to go now!"

"Are you sure you're not pulling me out of here to save Mello?"

"Very sure! That may be an added benefit, but I really don't care about that."

Mello blinked, shocked by Matt's fury and determination. Has he ever cared as much about anything before? He wondered briefly. Maybe… maybe he likes this person… maybe a lot…

Roger glared at him. Matt glared back. Then, Mello stepped in. "Mr. Roger, sir, I suggest you go now."

"Oh, your glaring won't work on me, boy- Holy shit!" Mello had dished out his mega-super-if-you-want-to-die-slowly-and-painfully -then-go-ahead-and-try-to-cross-me glare.

Roger sighed. "Fine. But if this is some kind of trick, you boys will have hell to pay." Then, he slowly gathered up his coat and slowly prepared to go out the door. Mello gave him another glare to push him along.

Matt smiled gratefully at Mello. "Thank you soooo much," he whispered before the door clicked shut. Mello felt hollow when they left, alone in the empty room. Just what is Matt doing?

* * *

**A/N: Sorry I haven't updated in awhile! I have no excuse except writer's block. :( It's such an evil thing! But don't worry, my writer's block is gone now so I'll update soon after this one! :D**


	12. Chapter 12

Matt rushed into L's workroom, whipped out his laptop, plugged it into L's computers, and started typing furiously. "Oh good, you're here, Matt."

"I have to make sure my codes are completely invisible, undetectable by anyone or anything. This will take a lot of concentration until I get them set up. Please be quiet for a while, maybe an hour or two."

Instead of responding, L immediately lapsed into silence. No one said anything for three hours. They just sat there, L thinking, Matt typing, Watari reading police records on the couch.

Finally, Matt leaned back, wiping the sweat from his forehead, breaking the heavy silence. "Excellent. According to everyone and everything, my viruses don't exist! And if they do, not only will it tell me immediately, but they'll trace back to Deneuve."  
"Umm… Matt? I am Deneuve."

"I know."

"Then, why…?"

"Because no one thinks you are him, and it would seem ok for him to be going after a mass-murderer, right? Plus, he's super-smart, so it's plausible that he could suspect this _Samuel Frost _as the murderer."

"But… someone might find a connection between me and Deneuve."

"Nope! I mean, I found a couple, but immediately destroyed/protected them, so now it's virtually (no pun intended) impossible."

"Oh, ok. That's fine, then."

"Right. So, now, I guess, all we have to do is wait. Although, I'd really like to hear how you found this lead."

After they told him, Matt chuckled, shaking his head. "Wow. That was a really stupid move, Mr. Frost! You should've known better. Ah, well. He probably thought Iris would protect him."

"So, you do agree with me that he is probably the former murderer?"

"Or connected with him, yes. I doubt Ms. Kane is anyone special, but I'm checking up on her, just to be sure."

"Good. I don't want any loose ends."

"Yes sir!" Matt mock-saluted, feeling lighter than air. Iris was going to come back. Soon. Very, very soon. "Oh, by the way, what about your other case that you just recently took on?"

L waved his hand. "It's not important."

Matt raised an eyebrow. "Yes, but until we get further information, we can't do anything. You could work until then."

L sighed. "Sometimes, I wonder who's the smart one around here."

Matt beamed. "Well, I'm just telling you to work more, nothing special. Watari could've… no, should've, done that for me, but I guess he's worried about Iris, too."

"Aren't you worried about her?" L asked.

"Of course! But once I set up viruses, I feel a sense of peace until they alert me of something. I'm able to think clearly and do everyday work." He shrugged.

"Since when do you work?" L asked, incredulous.

"Killing everyone on Starcraft is hard work, you know. Plus, I've done a bunch of hard labor, such as mining a 1000x1000x10 space on level 11. That takes awhile!"

L snorted. "Ok, whatever you say."

Matt smirked and got on Starcraft, requesting Lightspeed300 to join his game. To his delight, she was on.

-Hey sis!-

-How long're you going to be gone this time?-

Her tone was surprisingly hostile.

-You ok?-

-Do I sound ok?-

-...It's been awhile since I went away.-

-Yeah, but why did you have to go _now_?-

-What…?-

-You know what? Forget it. Let's just kill a bunch of armies.-

-Um… ok? Are you sure you don't want to talk?-

-Look, I can't help you right now. You need to be here in person. Sorry for being so grumpy. :) -

Matt blinked. _Talk about mood change! What the heck is she on about? I can't do anything though… ah well. Best drop it until I get home._

-Sure!-

After a few games, his computer beeped urgently.

-Ah, sorry I have to go!-

He quickly logged off, not giving her time to respond. _Great. I'll have hell for that next time I see her. _He switched screens over to his hacking central. The viruses had encountered not only his firewalls, but the firewalls of a mediocre hacker put over them, which completely destroyed some of the good effects of his firewalls, showing that the murderer had no clue what the firewalls did, just that they were good. Matt actually laughed out loud. _Oh, this is going to be fun. Plus, the murderer _has _to be Frost. Or at least directly related to/involved with Frost. Otherwise, his firewalls wouldn't be there._

However, it was a substantial barrier. Good thing Matt had memorized exactly what his firewalls were comprised of. The prepared to blast through it, then stopped. _What if he finds me? My firewalls specialize in detecting spyware. They'll alert him at the slightest hint that someone is there. I made them to be like that. _Great. This'll be harder than he thought.

He paused, then plugged in one of his flash drives; it was his getting-through-barriers-unseen-flash drive. Once he was through, he could use other software to access the information he needed.

Suddenly, Matt's old firewalls were working too well. _Shit! I forgot about the 17th code sequence! _Knowing that there was absolutely no chance in hell that he could slide through this without some sort of conflict, he took a chance.  
"L! Do you have a new computer that you've never used or an old computer with nothing on it?"

He blinked. "No."

"Dammit! I'll have to disguise myself." He looked at L. "I'm going to take a chance. If I don't take this chance, we're done for. If I do take this chance, then there is a possibility that we're done for. And I don't have time to buy a new computer. I'll need silence. Sorry!"

Matt typed up a few clever, hidden codes and then typed up the most garish, blunt, stupid codes he could think of, without being so obvious that it's a diversion. He launched the virus with an unsteady heart. Would this work?

The virus rammed into the firewall, immediately sending up red flags while Matt turned to his flash drive and added something to counteract the 17th code sequence. Then, he checked back on his diversion. Matt winced. There was nothing bad happening to him; the hidden codes stayed hidden. But it almost physically hurt him to see how much the mediocre hacker's firewalls blocked his. They prevented his firewalls from sending viruses out to attack the virus itself (not that he minded that his makeshift virus was safe), and they canceled out some of the codes. He knew it was bad at a glance, but that fact that is was _this _bad made him almost sick. After all, he spent hours laboring over each one of the firewalls, making sure none of them contradicted each other, only for them to end up like _this_. It disgusted him.

L peered at him. He almost asked Matt if he was ok, but then remembered that he really shouldn't talk right now. After all, he looked at the screen as if it was showing him a picture of a baby boiling alive.

Then, his face smoothed over as he sighed. "We're good, L. I got past the firewalls."

"What happened?"

"I forgot about a code sequence, so my sneaky virus was in danger of being discovered. In order to save my sneaky virus, I launched a disguised virus that would basically distract the firewalls while I put extra support codes around the diversion virus went through safely, and the diversion virus wasn't traced back to us, and in fact just self-destructed, but…" He sighed sadly. "A mediocre hacker put up some extra firewalls around mine, which completely blocked all of their virus responses and just rendered them as a virtual wall that the diversion virus bounced off of! It's horrible and repulsive. I _can't _believe my poor firewalls were given to that _slime._"

"Uh… Matt… if their firewalls protected the diversion virus, then why are you complaining?"

Matt whirled around to face him, fury resonating from him. "What would you do if you saw Iris was turned into a slave?!"

L's jaw dropped. "I'd kill the one who did it, of course, but that is completely different than what we are discussing…"

"No it's not! Iris is someone you care for, used for the completely wrong reasons! Shit! My poor firewalls… I spent so long working on them… and then for it to come to this…"

"Uh… Matt?" L blinked.

Watari put a hand on L's shoulder and shook his head. _Leave him be. _

Eventually Matt calmed down and returned to the computer. "Oh, good! He's a stupid idiot when it comes to sharing information on the internet, too! He trusts his firewalls too much."

"But… don't you do that as well? After all, you kept all your software behind one group of firewalls."

"Yes, but that's because I knew there was no way for anyone to get to them."

"Uh… what?"

"Of course, I wasn't counting on Wammy's House making a mistake…" Matt smirked triumphantly, despite the fact that no one else had really taken this seriously.

L just shook his head. "So, what did you find?"

"Well, I got his location, Iris's location, the fact that he _has _to be the murderer, evidence to prove it, and, well, the fact that he knows that L, Denevue, and Elraldo Coil are the same person."

"So… a bunch of good news and some I'm-going-to-kill-you-now-Matt news, right?"

Matt nodded. "Pretty much."

"Is there any possible way to make sure the viruses _don't _trace back to Denevue?"

"Oh, those were searching viruses. I've already extracted them and will promptly revise them. But, I've made everything else trace back to him as well. However, if I extract those, then I'll have to back out of his system."

"Ok. Matt, you have a job. First, figure out how the hell he knew I was those two people as well. Second, make sure that he does not trace back those viruses to anywhere. If you do, Iris will die. Do you understand?"

Matt blanched. "Maybe I should do the second one first, then… but yes, I understand."

"Wait… if you already know the location and everything, then why can't you withdraw now?"

"I want to hack into his security system. He spent a long time working on this, so it doesn't look like he has any security, but it's top notch. I want to install a code in it that will make it shut off with just one code that I will give it when we enter his house. It'll save me a bunch of hassle and will protect us when we enter his house."

"Is it optional?"

"It's optional if you want to increase the chances of us getting killed by 80%."

L nodded. He understood percents. "Please do so then. But be very careful."

Matt turned to the keys. It was going to be hard to do this without messing up and costing Iris her life. Sighing, he began, nervously. Suddenly, he was aware of the sweat on his palms from being nervous as his fingers slipped. It was one of those moments that movies would capture in slow motion, but there was nothing slow about this. Instead of hitting nine, he hit zero... and then hit enter when he wasn't even finished typing in the first sequence.

_Fuck._

He didn't even know what that order of numbers would do… probably something that would alert the system of his presence, and then they would trace that back to Denevue and… and Iris would… "Shit, fucking shit, dammit!"

L looked at him in alarm. "What happened?"

"My fingers slipped."

Blinking, L stared at him incredulously. "Iris's life is on the line and _your fingers slipped?_"

"What can I say?" Matt grumbled. "This isn't a story where everything turns out perfectly."

L still stared at him. "Even still… _your fucking fingers slipped?!"_

Matt started. He had never heard L cuss before. Obviously, he could, but L mostly maintained his cool and didn't flip out. Then again, he had plenty of reason to. Quickly, since L was scaring him, Matt turned back to the computer to see what his codes caused. He muttered quietly. "I'm sorry. I know how I would react if my sister was ever hurt."

"You have a sister?" L inquired, feigning ignorance.

"Yeah. Her name's Lily. She's pretty awesome. I'm pretty sure she's ticked off with me right now, though."

"Why?"

"I'm saving Iris all the time and not telling her anything, so she just has to sit there until I return. Plus, I had to quit suddenly from our game when my viruses alerted me that they found a firewall."

"Oh. So what happened to the code that you let loose?" L's words were biting, still clearly furious.

"It's… well… I have no idea. It's not immediately doing anything bad, that I can tell."

"Great. Ok, well, work to counteract your mistake, if you can."

"Alright."

Matt wiped his hands carefully on his jeans, and began to type. He typed for hours, touching nothing but the numbers and occasionally some punctuation marks used in coding. All the while thoughts were swarming through his head like a pestering hive of bees. _What did I do? Doe_s_ the enemy know_ _I'm here? Oh god, what if Iris dies and it's all because of me and my sweaty hands… _He wiped his hands on his jeans again. _I need to know what that code did. But it isn't like any of the billions I've memorized, or set up like any of the thousands of different ways to set things up that I've memorized. But if it's just a random group of numbers, then I would've found out by now! _Suddenly, he gasped. The accident code had finally revealed itself.

At that moment, all of the information ever stored behind that firewall was revealed to him. He had access to everything, and he didn't even notice that it was happening, which shows that it was _really _advanced. He looked back at the simple code. It was so short! How could it do so much? Plus, it was unlike any code he had ever experienced before, without any sense of rhythm. Which showed… he beamed. _I discovered a new code! I'll have to test this one out, definitely!_

Matt didn't realize he sighed out loud. L looked at him. "Was that a sigh of relief? Did you not just screw up?"

Matt laughed. "Eh, probably not! The accident-code just got me all the information stored behind these firewalls, even if it was deleted, and I didn't even realize that it was doing that! It's really advanced, so I don't have any idea if it had any bad side effects, like alerting the enemy of my presence, but for now we should be ok. Plus, I'm done two hours earlier than I would've been!"

L sighed with relief, copying Matt, as if he had been holding his breath until now. "Good. Great! Where are they?"

"Oh, this is funny… wait for it… the Commander lives and keeps Iris in London, just _minutes _away from Wammy's House. Out of everywhere in the world, he lives in London! And he knew of Wammy's House being there, too!"

"He probably did it so that he could keep an eye on me. And that would explain why we couldn't find the murderer in America. How did we get the notion he was there anyway?"

Watari shrugged. "The murderer was killing people in America. We assumed, quite stupidly, that he'd stay there."

"Yes, that was quite stupid. Hmm…"

"Ah well. Nothing we can do about it now." Matt grinned. "We should go pay a visit to Wammy's House, though. I need to face the wrath of my sister."

L smiled wryly. "And I need to save my sister."

"Right. We should probably prioritize that, right?" Matt joked.

"Yeah, maybe a little." L smiled along with him. He appreciated Matt trying to cheer him up. It helped. "Let's go!"

* * *

**A/N: Ok, so you're probably wondering, "What the heck? Since when did Matt have a sister?" I can explain. I started writing this fanfic a long long long time ago, and my friend, FireDragon1019 was writing a fanfic with Matt sister in it. Then we had a brilliant idea: Let's merge the two! Soooo, if you want to find out what happens to Matt's sister, go visit her page. Although, I'm not sure if she's posted that yet. Hm... Either way, although she hasn't come into play much, yet, Matt's sister will get more important with time. O.O That was a really long author's note... anyhoo... Enjoy! :D**


	13. Chapter 13

Roger greeted L and Watari with open arms. He glanced suspiciously at Matt quite a few times, but didn't say anything. He couldn't, with L right there. L, however, wasn't called a genius for nothing.

"Roger," L smirked. "Please don't punish Matt in any way for freaking out a little when coming to my base. It's not his fault; in fact, you could say it would be mine. Anyway, you can't punish him, but I would like you to prevent him from coming to my room unless I call for him. We have all the information we need (Matt can take down the security system from Wammy's House), and this next part will be extremely dangerous. He can't come with us, do you understand?" L was speaking to both Matt and Roger.

"Yes, sir!" Roger replied.

Matt glared at L with indignation. "Do I have to?"

L's gaze softened. "I at least want you to be here if I die. At least you. I can't risk you dying, and if Iris and I both die… well, it could complicate things."

Roger glanced at him quizzically. Matt had just been very rude to him, and yet Matt seemed far closer than he was to L. Roger wondered why, when he had been serving L for such a long time.

"Ok. Bye, L. Don't you dare die."

"I'll try."

Matt headed back to his room, sighing heavily._ I need to go see Lily_. He immediately marched over to her room. Tentatively, he knocked on her door.

She opened it up, saying, "I don't care who you are, go away right now!" Her face went from angry to shocked in a matter of seconds. "Uh… Matt! Hi, Matt… Um… You have impeccable timing, but I'm not sure if that's good or bad..."

Matt blinked. There were two mugs of hot chocolate on her desk. One of them belonged to Mello, who was sitting on a chair, angled towards the door. His face was slightly pink from either anger, embarrassment, or tears a minute or so before. This being Mello, the obvious response would be anger, but Mello's expression suggested otherwise…

…

L was in his signature position, as he needed the 40% more than ever. How could he get Iris out of there safely without him killing her? He studied a map of the building carefully. Iris was being kept in the basement; the stairs to the basement were in the back of the house. Sure, there wouldn't be a security system, but it would still be difficult to get in and out without being heard.

They had already decided to go in the middle of the night. L decided to go himself, along with Watari. He had to see Iris as soon as possible. They decided to take a few guns with them, and go that night, at 3:00 a.m. Usually, people were asleep by then.

"Watari, go tell Matt to take down the security system at 3. Please don't let anyone else know that we are going anywhere, or that Matt is going to be doing anything."

"Yes sir."

L reviewed the plan, going over every little detail, making sure it was all ok. It was. It always was, but he couldn't stand doing nothing until it was time to go. I guess I'd better get used to it. After Watari came back, L asked him, "Hey… do you think you can get me any cake?"

Watari smiled, knowing L asked for cake only when he was very nervous or the problem he was working on seemed impossible. "Of course. Strawberry, right?"

"Of course."

…

Watari opened the front door slowly, careful not to make any sounds. He motioned for L to follow him. They crept through several rooms, including the kitchen and the living room, and very quietly tiptoed past the bedroom. They slid down the stair, like they were ghosts, and found a locked door to the right. Watari took out a lockpick and unlocked the room; they silently entered and found a horrible, stinky room that didn't look like it'd been cleaned in years, with a cot Iris was sleeping on and a toilet in the corner. She was still wearing the same clothes the murderer captured her in, and while they should've been tight on her, they were very, very loose. The only way you could tell she grew out of them was that they were too short at the ankles and wrists.

L almost gagged, tears welling in his eyes. Oh, poor, poor Iris. He crept over, picked her up, his arms cradling her, and they left the room. Quietly, up the stairs they went and to the front door.

Unfortunately, they never got there. Watari whipped out his gun and pointed it at the tall, solid barrier of a human with a gun and a laser, which blocked their path. The laser's aiming light was pointed on Iris's forehead, and the gun was directed at Watari. A slight flick of his wrist, and Frost could have L under the laser's light as well.

Frost smirked. "You think that if you turn off my security system, you could get past unnoticed? Not true."

"How…?" L asked, his eyes wide.  
"You work for Mr. L, don't you? Well, I'll tell you something. Mr. Hacker's probably going against you. He did turn off my security system, but when he did it, he alerted my computer at the same time. So, I got up, looked at my laptop, figured out that someone who was very skilled turned off my system, and went to kill Iris. Looks like you saved me a trip down the stairs!"

"You do know that if you kill Iris, we will not hesitate to kill you."

"Ok then, I'll just kill that big bodyguard with a gun first then. It won't take much. After all, he can't shoot me for fear that I'll press the laser's button or the gun's trigger in that split instant after the gun goes off, can he?"

"So we're at an impasse."

"Oh, not at all, Mr. L's workers! All I have to do is shoot the gun then press the laser button! And if you shoot before I do, then, in that split second, I'll press the laser button! It all works out in my favor!"

"You're a bastard."

"Oh! So perhaps you know Iris as well? Or maybe you're just angry that I'm going to kill you. Either way, goodbye!"

A gunshot ripped through the air, shattering their eardrums. It was followed by a scream.

* * *

**A/N: Such an evil chapter ending! But then again, you already knew I was evil. :P**


	14. Chapter 14

_A gunshot ripped through the air, shattering their eardrums. It was followed by a scream._

L gasped in pain and surprise. The laser was burning through his side, going up to his arm… and then it shut off. Luckily it had missed Iris, who screamed. But… why? He focused on keeping his eyes open, despite his tilting vision. Oh. Because of them. Stupid boys.

Mello and Matt ran forward, towards L, who was falling towards the ground. Matt quickly caught Iris and Mello caught L. Watari was calling a private ambulance. The murderer was gasping, trying to get up, even with the bullet still in his legs, but Mello pointed his gun at his forehead. "You just try to get away, bastard." he snarled.

L was losing a lot of blood. It was everywhere, pooling around him, staining the carpet and Iris's old ratty clothing. She had horror etched onto her face, staring at the blood welling out of L's side and mingling with the murderer's.

Despite his best efforts, L didn't see the ambulance come and take him to a private, secluded hospital for Wammy's House. He didn't see Iris worrying over him and hugging Matt. He didn't see her eyes shining with tears when the doctors weren't sure if he would live or not. He didn't see anything of what happened, due to the fact that he was sleeping the whole time.

…

Iris's brow was furrowed. L was still wrapped in bandages, and still in the hospital, asleep. The doctors said that if he didn't wake soon, he never would. It _had _been a week already. Dr. Harriet stood by her shoulder, more afraid than ever for her mental well-being. Matt and Mello were forced to study from the hospital, and were nearly always busy, because of Roger. Stupid old man. Iris wished that one of her friends could be here right now, enjoying her 'leisure week' with her, besides Dr. Harriet. She was nice, and Iris was glad for her company, but she needed someone to make her laugh. Her mind wandered to those few weeks before she was captured, and that person who had made her laugh more than she had ever thought possible…

"My well-being-protector, presents on birthdays, solid form of codes…" Oh, and since she hadn't spoken for a year, all throughout that Frost's interrogations, she was worse at communicating than ever before. Dr. Harriet frowned. She knew that she was the "well-being-protector", but what did "presents on birthdays" and "solid form of codes" mean?

"Get her her computer… right?" L croaked, having finally opened his eyes.

Iris gasped and turned back to him. "Brother!" she would've hugged him had she not been afraid of hurting him. She would've said a thousand things had her vocal cords not stopped working just then. **(A/N: You ****_get_**** presents on birthdays, and computers are made up of a bunch of codes, except they are solid, not virtual, so Iris was saying 'Can you get me my computer?')**

"It's ok, Iris. Your eyes say it all," L smiled, relief flooding his entire body. He was alive. Iris was ok. Everything was ok.

The nurse came in and checked L's pulse and IVs. She smiled at him warmly. "You seem to be fine for now. Tell me if anything unexpected happens, ok?"

"Witches of the beach?" Iris asked.

The nurse, who knew Iris's speech impediment, paused for a minute. "Umm… do you know what that means, Dr. Harriet?"

Dr. Harriet pursed her lips. "No."

Iris sighed and rubbed her tummy, then pointed to her now open mouth.

"Oh! Are you hungry?" The nurse asked.

Iris smiled and nodded. The nurse still looked confused however. "But what do witches have to do with anything? Or beaches?"

Iris shrugged, unable to explain.

Later, the nurse brought in some sandwiches on a platter, beaming. "Witches of the beach! I figured it out! Beaches have sand, and if you put witch after sand, it makes sandwich!"

Iris beamed and put out a thumbs up.

"Anyway, don't eat too many of these all at once, Iris. You're still suffering from your near starvation. If you get too much food in your body at once, you'll die."

Iris rolled her eyes and nodded. They told her that every day. The only day it had been hard to not eat the whole platter was the first day. Now, it was easier.

L looked at the sandwiches with distaste. "Do you have any cookies, by any chance?"

The nurse frowned. "Cookies are unhealthy, loaded with sugar. Of course a hospital doesn't have that! I've heard from Mr. Watari that your diet is extremely unhealthy. It came up in your blood sugar readings. I'm afraid that you'll have to deal with sandwiches."

L was horrified. "No… sugar… I'M GOING TO DIE!" He began coughing, having yelled too loud.

The nurse rushed forward. "Now, now, you can't do that!" She patted him on the back until the fit left him. She looked at him sternly. "Don't overexert yourself! And eat your sandwiches, you're low on blood sugar, having not eaten for a week."

"Exactly why I need sugar!" He yelled to the leaving nurse. She just waved, which said, _Deal with it._

Iris smiled and fed her brother the sandwiches, despite his protests. Later, he fell asleep, since he was still ill. Iris looked back at Dr. Harriet. "Solid codes?"

"Um… Oh! That means your computer, right? Sure, I'll go get it." After a minute, she came back with Iris's laptop.

Iris grinned and logged onto Starcraft. It had been so long… She was super excited, hoping desperately that Lily was on. She was! Iris's entire world seemed to become one degree brighter. Maybe Lily could help Iris forget… that. She quickly joined Lightspeed300's game.

-Japanese say this more than Americans! Children are more open about this than adults, past tense; you say this in elementary school, but not in middle, for some reason; Lily's favorite game.-

After a minute or so, she responded.

-Umm… I don't mean to be rude or anything, but did something happen? You used to be better at speaking than this… Anyway, was this your message? 'Sorry! Wanted to play Starcraft.' I'm assuming you couldn't, then. :\ Are you ok?-

Iris's face softened. Of course Lily would wonder. She was a good friend. -Hair that is not very thick; of the hour, minute, second.-

-'Fine, right now. Who knows how much longer?' …. Right? Well, at least you're ok, now. Do you want to talk or play?-

-Stay in elementary school, it's more fun!-

-Righto! Let's go kill some wimps! :D-

Iris laughed. She knew Lily could help.


	15. Chapter 15

When Matt _finally _caught a break from school, he immediately went to see Iris. Mello, however, decided that studying was more important now that L was guaranteed to live. Matt thought he was crazy, but he didn't try to convince him otherwise. He would rather Mello achieve his dreams of beating Near than to take a few hours off for him. Or at least, that's what he told himself. Matt sighed. _Ah, well. It doesn't really matter much anyway. We're still in the same building. _They were doing school over the internet until Iris came back and L fully recovered.

He knocked on the hospital door in Iris's and his special code they made up so that Iris would know it was Matt and not her doctors. It felt good to be able to do that again, if only for old time's sake. "Walk through doors!" That wasn't really a riddle, but it wasn't that Iris's mind thought in _riddles_, exactly. She just thought differently, and it was usually a riddle.

"Hey, Iris! How's L?"

"Winter won't come this year."

"... and what does that have to do with L? Oh, wait, let me guess. Winter… winters are cold… ooh! You become cold when you're dead! And… I guess 'won't come this year' means it's not going to happen this time, right? So L's not going to die this time!" Matt beamed.

Iris laughed, enjoying how he solved her puzzles out loud.

"What're you doing, Iris?"

Iris was about to respond, 'Lily's favorite game.', but obviously, Matt didn't know about Lily. She reworded it into, "My favorite game."

Matt smiled. "Is that Starcraft? Cool! Maybe I'll join you." Suddenly, Matt froze. "Oh, crap! I need to talk to my…" he trailed off. "Um… I need to make a phone call, sorry."

"No math homework!" Iris smiled.

Matt smiled. Math homework had problems, so it was 'No problem'. "Thanks, Iris."

He picked up the phone and pressed speed dial. Lily picked up. "Hello?"

"Hey, Lils! How are you doing?"

"I'm good. I'm playing Starcraft with an online friend."

Matt looked behind him at Iris. She was playing Starcraft, too. Hm… That was rather funny, actually. _I wonder if they're friends… nah, that's too big of a coincidence. _"Cool. Um… I wanted to tell you what's happened since I've been gone. L got zapped with a laser and lost a lot of blood-"

"What?! No! No way!"

Matt was shocked at how distraught she sounded. He didn't recall her ever caring that much about L before… "Whoa, Lily, it's okay. He's going to be fine. Since when did you become so worried about L, anyway?"

"If L dies, Mello's not going to let sheep boy replace him without a fight. He will break the law to prove he's better, and you'll help him. I won't let you." Lily responded. Her voice was slightly defiant.

Matt sighed, knowing she was right. "Have you always been so smart?"

"Yes." Lily stated it as a fact, without bragging. Matt loved that, despite everything, despite the fact that she could and she had every right to, she didn't brag. She was similar to L, Iris, and Mello that way. Matt bragged a little, but only in a teasing way, so it was ok.

"Well then I've been really stupid not to notice."

Lily laughed over the phone.

"What?" Matt didn't think she was laughing at him…

"Nothing. It's something my friends said while we were playing."

Matt smiled, glad that she was enjoying herself, despite the lack of company. "What have you been doing with me _and _Mello gone?"

"Playing Starcraft, solving puzzles, and tormenting a brunette boy about the same age as you."

Matt furrowed his eyebrows. Lily was tormenting someone? He didn't say anything, which clearly meant, "..." over the phone.

"Ask Mello."

Matt turned around and called to Mello, who was in the next room over, "Hey, Mello?"

"What?" He called back.

"Someone mentioned something about torturing a brunette boy our age and said you could explain."

"Ah, _him_," Mello laughed. "Apparently, some people find it frightening that I might choose to associate with an eight-year-old girl and ask for her help."

Lily giggled on the other side of the phone. Matt grinned as well. Oh the fun things people could do when other people think they know you, but they really don't. Matt then heard Lily mumble quietly, "Money makes you rich, crystals are minerals, crops grow in a field, and Peter pan lives in Neverland. Never Eat Soggy Waffles. Go north."

Matt blinked a few times. "Huh?"

"Nothing, just thinking aloud," Lily replied quickly.

_What the hell? _"What on Earth could you be thinking about that made you say that?" _Did Lily's mind work like Iris's, but she could control it more? That doesn't make any sense, she's been fine since birth…_

"I've told you, I've been doing puzzles. Word puzzles, otherwise known as riddles."

_Oh. Maybe I should introduce her and Iris. She does puzzles well, and Iris speaks nothing but puzzles… hm… I really should do that sometime. _"Okay, Lils. I gotta go. I'll call again later, okay? And I'll be coming home fairly soon, at least to visit."

"Alright! See ya!" Lily called, her voice sounding cheerful.

Matt smiled and hung up. He was glad that, despite him being away so much, Lily was still happy, cheerful Lily.

L had woke up again a little before Matt finished his call with Lily. "Hey, Matt, the reason I got hurt was because the murderer woke up from a beep in his computer which occurred when you turned off the system. Did you tell him that we were there?"

Matt blinked, shocked that L could come to that conclusion. "No, of course not! But I did use… oh crap, I used the accident code… um… do you remember when my finger slipped?"

"Rather painfully, yes."

"Uh… well… that was a really good code that I didn't fully understand, but I used it to save time, because I didn't have time to hack the normal way because I was chasing after you without your knowledge and that's a little hard…"

"So the accident code alerted him when you changed anything within, right?"

"Or something like that. Something else might've triggered the alert, but, yes, it was definitely the accident code. I'm so sorry, I didn't think that through…"

L sighed. "It's ok, since you rescued us, but if you had hacked in the normal way, following my directions, none of this would've happened."

"Well… it might've, because the time I discovered it, I used it to get the information from the account, so it might've already been there… but you're probably right. S-Sorry."

L smiled. "It's fine. No one died! The murderer is captured, and I have had a lot of down time! Breaks are quite nice. If you add in my preferred diet, I wouldn't mind doing this more often!"

Matt laughed. "Ok!" He also talked to Iris a bit while she played Starcraft with her online friend. Matt smiled. It was good she was making some friends, despite her riddle problem.

"Hey, Iris, how do you talk to your friends online?"

"Equally."

"Hmm… so, in a math problem, equal means the same amount… so, the same! You just talk to them the same way? But they wouldn't be able to understand you!"

"Books, neurologists."

"Uh… well, I know neurologists study the mind, but what about books… um… well you can read them… oh! Your friend reads about neurology?"

Iris raised an eyebrow at him. _Really? How would that help me?_

"Oh, you're right, that's stupid. Um… your friend reads about minds… they read your mind! But that's impossible… oh! They're good at figuring out what you're are saying, and you are saying riddles, so they're good at figuring out riddles!"

Iris nodded, smirking. It would've taken her friend much less time, but then again, it would've taken the average human being way more time, if they could figure it out at all. Iris was really lucky to have all the friends that she did. Her gaze softened. "T-Thanks."

Matt grinned. It was good that Iris could still say a few words in normal-form.

Dr. Harriet ruined the moment by coming in. "Iris, I need you to come with me for awhile, ok?"

Iris scowled. She was having so much fun. "Oranges and kiwis," she sighed.

"What?" Dr. Harriet asked.

"Oranges and kiwis!"

"Matt, can you translate?"

"Uh… Well… based on the situation I think she would say ok, but… Oh! Iris was probably wondering what ok stood for anyway, I mean, it's just an O and a K… so she said oranges and kiwis. It's lunch time anyway, so she was probably hungry… um… if that makes any sense?"

"What part of Iris makes sense?" Dr. Harriet smiled. "Oh! I'm sorry Iris, I wasn't trying to imply that you were insane, I was just joking and please don't take offense or anything, I'm really sorry and…"

"Treaty!"

"Treaty? Oh, you must mean peace… right? Some people say peace to get other people to stop talking, so it's ok, right?"

Iris sighed with relief. She hadn't taken offense at all. She knew she didn't make sense to others, and was ok with that. She just tried her hardest to make others understand. "I-I d-d-don't... b-brain at… at a-all…"

Dr. Harriet smiled warmly. Iris had spoken a full sentence almost completely out of riddle-form! The brain meant mind, obviously, but other than that, it was all comprehensible! "Awesome! Both at your sentence and the meaning."

Iris grinned and followed Dr. Harriet out after saying goodbye to her online friend.


	16. Chapter 16

Soon, Iris's leisure week (thought it was a bit longer than a week) was over, so Iris, Matt, and Mello returned to Wammy's House. Before she left, though, Iris went to see her brother one last time, who was, fortunately, awake. She had something she wanted to say.

"Brother. No. When are islands desert-y anyway? The fish in a school of fish, but without the fish."

L blinked. Iris must be really upset. This riddle was more complex than normal. He thought outloud so that she could tell him whether he was hot or cold. "So, obviously the no at the beginning means that you don't approve with what follows, right?"

Iris nodded.

"When are islands desert-y, anyway? Well, people often talk of desert islands… being isolated on desert islands… um… isolated? Is that the word?"

Iris nodded again. She would've smiled, but she was unhappy at the moment.

"Ok, so the fish in a school of fish, but without the fish. So… a school of fish without fish… would be water. Um… no? Ok, it would be… a school! Right. So, the fish in a school. I guess you aren't referring to classroom pets?" L jested, trying to get Iris to smile while smiling himself. It worked. "Ok, so the fish in a school. Let's see… well the other part of the puzzle was talking about the words **(A/N: school of fish minus the word fish is just school of… miscreants :D)**, so the fish in a school of fish are what makes up the school. That wouldn't be the bricks, I think. So… the students and staff?"

Iris nodded, this time smiling. She knew L had solved it faster by working it out in his head first, but he had said everything aloud to entertain her. She appreciated it.

"So, you disapprove of isolation from the students and staff, right? Oh! You don't want to continue school as normal, you want to be with the other students!"

Iris nodded.

"Ok. I can definitely make that happen, but Iris…" L hesitated. "Are you sure you want to?"

She cocked her head, clearly asking, _What do you mean?_

"Well, I know you have Matt and Mello; they're both very accepting. However, some students are not as kind. Some people may tease you and… and I don't want you to get upset again." L's eyes softened. He did _not _even like thinking about Iris being so upset that she might take her life.

Iris frowned. "Desert islands are like atom bombs."

L smiled, remembering when she told Matt that cigarettes were worse than atomic bombs. "Very well. I'm sorry, I forgot to think about the fact that you would probably get more depressed from isolation. Well, here, I'll make you a deal. You get to be with the other students, but you still have to eat lunch with Dr. Harriet (no one else- they got rid of the other doctors) and, for the first week, stick close to Matt and Mello, ok? They have a good, or bad, really, reputation at Wammy's which will protect you. Once people associate you with them, you'll be safe. Well, more safe than you would've been."

"Thanks!" Iris ran forward and hugged L as hard as she could on his good side, careful to not touch his still-healing skin.

…

"You've got your schedule?" Matt checked with Iris while Mello was smirking at his boyfriend's brotherly manner.

Iris nodded for the tenth time. She had already memorized who her teachers were, what their room numbers were, and all of the school maps. She knew where her room was, and that she would have a roommate her age. She didn't quite know who was her roommate, though. She did know that they were intelligent and accepting, according to Roger.

_Intelligent. Yeah, that's helpful. Everyone is intelligent here. _As for the accepting part, well… you can be accepting of many things, like the fact that bullying is ok. But Iris didn't want to be alone in a room, so she sighed and dealt with her nerves, hoping her roommate had the patience to decipher riddles.

"Ok, Iris!" Matt interrupted Iris's thoughts. "Lead the way! I'm not going to ask the room number, because you need to know how to get there by yourself. You lead, I'll follow."

Iris grinned slightly at the Skyrim reference, then walked forward, her legs wobbly, her suitcase bumping on the tile floor behind her: it was a blue rolling suitcase, brand new. She didn't really have many clothes that fit her any more, or possessions in general, besides her laptop. The books she read belonged to L, or to Wammy's, but she had a select few. She also had a journal in there, where she wrote down, in her own way, about her days and her feelings about everything. The daily journal thing had obviously stopped when she was taken captive, but she resumed it right when she got back.

Eventually they got to the room, Iris not concentrating on Matt and Mello, who were blindly following her, not paying attention to where they were, absorbed in their own conversation. She nervously knocked on the door. Sounds of video games were coming from inside. _That's good. We have something in common._

"A minute!" The mystery roommate shouted coming towards the door. Iris's heart skipped a beat. A red-haired, cheerful girl threw open the door. She gasped in surprise. "Mattie! Mels!" She ran up and hugged them both. Iris just blinked. What the heck? Why did she know them? If they're friends then she can't be too bad, but…

"My new roommate?" She asked, looking at Iris. Iris glanced quickly back at Matt and Mello. They were grinning, barely containing their laughter. _Hmm… they know something. I'll get that out of them later, but first…_

"Yeah. This is Iris." Matt answered for her. Iris blinked, still very confused. Her roommate, Matt, and Mello seemed to be close…_ What is going on? _She thought miserably. They were looking at her expectantly, so she blurted out the first thing that came to her mind, not meaning to speak in codes, but failing. "Balls of flaming gas, build and be creative?" She blinked. _Crap! There's no way she'll get that balls of flaming gas is star and build and be creative is craft, so I'm asking if she plays Starcraft… but that doesn't help if she doesn't know that I speak in riddles! She probably thinks I'm insane, oh dear go-_

"Yeah, I play."

Iris's eyes widened. Her never ending thought stream a minute before shut off and turned into one thing: _WHAAAAAAAAAAAA? _"H-How?" She stuttered.

"I'm guessing you play too, right?" The girl smiled. "And you have a type of speech impediment where you can't really talk except in riddles?" Iris blinked, her mind on overload, still only thinking the one thing. She laughed quietly and almost whispered, "It's no math homework."

Iris stared, not believing that this could possibly be true. But who else would know that? "Li-Lily?"

Matt shattered the tension and suspense and all that other sappy crap by shouting, "I knew it!" Iris started, then turned to look at him, giving him a _What-the-heck? _look. She was very good at giving looks. She had to be, because of her speech impediment. Iris noticed that Lily and Mello were also very good at giving looks, as they were giving Matt the same look she gave him.

He blushed at their stares, and began to explain, "Sorry. It's just… I _thought_ it was funny. Lily said that she was playing Starcraft online with a friend who only spoke in riddles, and at the same time, Iris was playing Starcraft with a friend who could decipher them. I was kinda suspicious that you knew each other somehow."

Lily smiled and gestured at Matt. "Mattie is OutdoorsAreEvil60. He's my big brother."

All of the tension in Iris released. She laughed. Everyone was so stupid! How could they have not figured this out before! They went to _Wammy's _House, for Pete's sake! "I g-get the n-n-name." OutdoorsAreEvil. Classic Matt. She wondered briefly where he got 60. Eh, probably part of one of his favorite code sequences.

Lily grabbed her hand, taking her back to the real world. "Come inside! I'll show you where to put your stuff!" Mello chuckled at the girls. He didn't know about how they met over the internet, after all.

After Iris finished unpacking her few possessions, Mello turned to Matt and asked him when everyone was listening, so he couldn't just brush Mello off. "Hey, nice name, OutdoorsAreEvil60."

Matt blushed. "What? Outdoors are evil. First of all, there's the sun. The sun is awful. It makes you all hot and sticky."

"What about the winter time?"

"Well, that's obvious. It's cold!"

"Ok, what about springtime? There are flowers, Matt!" Mello chuckled, using sarcasm.

"Ew! Plus, with flowers comes pollen, and with pollen comes me sneezing and having a horrible day."

"You're allergic to pollen?"

"Yes."

"I suppose you don't care though, seeing as you never encounter it."

"How rude! I come out of my cave sometimes!"

"Right. Ok, what about autumn?"

Matt thought for a minute. "Well, I suppose it isn't _too_ bad," he admitted reluctantly. "Plus, everyone gets candy, and you get chocolate, and you're much happier than normal."

Mello chuckled. "The people who used to have chocolate aren't very happy, though!"

Matt smirked.

Iris then spoke up, voicing her question from earlier. "60?"

Matt blinked, then involuntarily blushed. "Um… that's nothing, just random numbers that I came up with…"

Mello blinked, staring at him. Then, devilish light entered his eyes. "Hmm? 60 means absolutely nothing to you? But, don't you remember, I told you never to forget that number?"

"Uh, well, I don't know what occasion you are referring to…"

Lily cracked up, having already forced the answer out of her brother long ago.

Mello leaned closer to Matt. "You really don't remember?" he whispered, his tone taunting Matt.

Matt flinched, jumping back. Mello leaned back again laughing. At this point, everyone except Iris knew where 60 came from. She asked again, "60?"

Lily was laughing so hard she snorted, which of course made her laugh harder. Matt was looking at his fingers and twitching them, as if looking for some way to hack out of the situation. Mello was grinning, leaning on his hands behind him, privately loving the fact that Matt had used the number 60.

Iris waited patiently for someone to explain. Finally, since Matt was too embarrassed to and Mello was too pleased to, Lily suppressed her laughter. "Ok, so 60 stands for…" she giggled again. "It is the percentage of cocoa that Mello likes in his chocolate." She burst out laughing again after hearing someone speak it out loud. Matt blushed even more as Iris joined Lily in cracking up.

Finally, Mello scooted closer to Matt. "Hey, it's ok, jeez. You don't have to be so embarrassed." He put his arm around his shoulders and shook him a little. "We're all friends here. And, frankly, I'm quite pleased."

Matt smiled a little, joining the others in their happiness. Then, he began to chuckle, too, and soon the room was filled with chuckles and guffaws and giggles and snorts and happiness.

Then, Roger walked in, very angry. "Matt! You're missing a class! What on Earth are you doing here?" Then he looked in, taking in the scene. He sighed. "Making sure your sister is settling in is nice, but that doesn't mean you are pardoned for the entire day! Come on!" Roger proceeded to drag Matt out of the room.

Just as the door was closing, he yelled, "I'll come see you again when I get out of prison!"

Mello snorted. "Of course that lazy idiot would forget one of his classes. Speaking of them, one of mine starts in 10 minutes. I'd better go."

"Bye!" Lily waved. "What about you, Iris? Do you have any classes? I have one, but it's in an hour. This is supposed to be my studying time, but who actually uses that time for studying?"

Iris grinned. "Mello." She began laughing all over again.

"I said _who._" Lily smirked. "I have a suspicion that Mello is secretly a robot."

Iris bit her lip to try and hold in her laughter. _But then… what's the point? _So, she just let herself laugh. She let herself laugh and laugh and laugh until she forgot all about the previous year, despite how close it used to be. She let herself forget about her old mental doctors, and her speech impediment that would get her bullied any day now. She forgot about how L was, even now, working on a case that put his life on the line. She forgot that it was very likely he would die soon, despite the measures he took. She let herself forget about those years before Matt, before she knew people, before she didn't know what it was like to laugh. She let herself just live in the moment, and laugh on.

**A/N: THE END! I know, it's so sad… D: BUT I have an epilogue coming and then a disclaimer chapter at the end, because Firedragon1019 contributed to enough of this that I have to mention it. Plus, I made it funny, so it's not just there for technicalities. **


	17. Epilogue

They were in a small, metal lined room, comfort ignored, with cameras on all four sides. L would later have Matt hack into the cameras and erase the video, but for now, he allowed select people to observe him and his conversation with that man, as long as no one knew who he was.

Frost glared at L, who was even more furious than he was. "How is that you're still alive, bastard?"

"Careful, now, anything you say is recorded," L scowled, his voice quiet, deadly serious, and his eyes would've burned holes right through Frost if they had the power of his laser. "You've been proven guilty, so really, I don't need to be here. But I want to know a couple of things: first of all, why did you murder in the first place?"

He snorted contemptuously. "Why the hell should I answer you? I'm in prison for life anyways."

"Because I can make sure that you get sent to the worst prison ever."

"Oh, threatening me, are you?"

"_Please_ answer me." L's 'please' was clearly not polite, more biting, but also showing that he was restraining himself and he could be a lot more deadly.

"Eh, well. There's really no need to hide it," Frost avoided eye contact. L could be really scary when he wanted to. "There was this git who always got on my nerves, but wasn't _exactly _my enemy, that I was trying to get arrested for murder. He was the one who had every scrap of evidence pointing towards him. You have no idea how hard I worked at that, and for you to dismiss it with a wave of your hand, to clearly see through it… It was frustrating. But anyway, that was my goal at first. When I found out that you were working on the case, though, I decided to make sure that you couldn't find me, or solve the case. I wanted to make a case that you couldn't solve. You were so famous for solving every difficult case, people in my section wondered if you were a god. It was infuriating. Then, I just barely found out from the hacker I hired that Iris was your sister, so I kidnapped her. Simple as that."

L raised his eyebrows. _He wanted to blame someone for murderer and make a case that I couldn't solve, so he killed about 15 people and captured and tortured a girl for a year? And he was a commander of a police force? _"Alright," L coolly replied, clearly strongly disapproving, still furious. "Also, one last thing." His eyes grew dark. "What the hell did you do to my sister?"

The murderer smirked. "I was wondering when you were going to ask that. It's quite simple, really. I kept her locked in a room as a hostage, gave her enough food and water so she could survive, and kept a loaded gun ready at the door. Occasionally, I… asked her questions about you." He scowled then. "That bitch never said anything, though. Well, most of the time. When she did say something, it was with great reluctance, although I have no idea why she was so scared. She should've been cocky, as the only words she were giving me were in a stupid code, and I don't have time for riddles." He smirked again, the light in his eyes going evil. "Oh, man, she payed for that."

L leaped up from his little metal chair, enraged. He looked about ready to throw Frost across the room and good riddance to him! Watari, however, placed a hand gently on his shoulder. "It's ok, L. What's done is done."

L then turned around, leaving. "She couldn't speak, bastard. She has a hard time expressing herself. Think on that while you rot in your cell, and you might just grow sorry for the things you did. I doubt it, though." Then he swiftly left the room, with Watari shutting the door behind him with a click. Frost leaned back in his chair and laughed maniacally, until the guards came and take him back to his cell where he, apparently, still chuckles to this day.

**A/N: Funny, how the story and the epilogue both end in laughter, and yet the tone is totally different. Anyway, this is the last chapter that has words that weave a story written in it. The last chapter will be very short, basically disclaimers between me and my friend, Firedragon1019. However, I will make it funny! :D Hopefully, I will write and post something with words that weave stories soon! Oh, and I'm sorry I haven't updated Ivy in awhile, I'm thinking of editing it slightly and taking some parts that I planned out, and um… well, editing. Sorry it's taking me awhile. :) Bye now!**


	18. Hilarious Disclaimers

Iris is mine.

Lily is Firedragon1019's. (You should really check out her work, it's awesome. Plus, there is a story revolving around Lily, which might clarify a few things that I left to her).

I should hope you would've understood that much without me even saying it.

Stuff that is Firedragon1019's:

1. No math homework. That phrase was ingeniously thought of by her; we use it often in school to taunt our friends, so though I'm not mentioning other phrases, that one is kinda important.

2. Infinity shield. Oh wait, that wasn't mentioned in this story… so, maybe, you should go read her work. :)

3. The idea to use Starcraft in the story. I actually wasn't familiar with it until she dragged me over there to play. Not that I minded, of course.

4. This isn't really something that belongs to her, but I'd like to mention that she edits almost all of my work. Yay her! :D

Stuff that is mine:

1. Dr. Harriet

2. That Frost guy. Unfortunately, he derived from the more evil parts of my imagination.

3. Amanda Kane. Do I need mention her? She's completely irrelevant, and I don't like her anyway. She doubts L's amazingness! Grr…

4. Firewall 13 and the accident code.

5. The 17th code sequence. (I really just put this here for anyone who knows where this comes from without having to go back in the story… if you do, I applaud to you.

6. The sneaky sneak sneak virus! (Ok, now I'm just adding stuff for the sake of adding stuff)

7. All of the conversation in this story that is not in Firedragon's fanfic as well.

Just to clarify, about half of the paragraphs that appeared in both my story and FireDragon1019's were written by me. The other half is hers. I won't make a list of who wrote what because I don't feel the need to waste your time any further.

8. Smith. You know, the hacker dude in the beginning. Not the millions of other people that have the last name Smith.

9. The riddle of the mirrors. The one with the 2+2=fish.

10. The strawberry cake that L eats before he recuses Iris. THAT CAKE IS MINE; YOU AREN'T ALLOWED TO HAVE IT! Got it? Good. **noms on the everlasting cake **Mmm… I love imagination cake. It never runs out.

Wait… If I can eat the imagination cake, then does that mean I can use the imagination firewalls and codes and stuff? Whoo! **hacks into Minecraft and makes the little yellow print on the homepage say, "Read Clecamuffin fanfictions!" for a month **MWAHAHA! I'm soooo evil.

Stuff owned by other people:

1. Death Note, is not, sadly, either of ours, nor are any of it's characters. It belongs to Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata.

2. Minecraft is not mine either. It's Notch's.

3. Nor is Starcraft. I don't really know who owns that. Some genius, apparently.

4. Skyrim isn't mine. I don't even know why I need to put this, I just made one reference.

5. Do I have to put Fairy Tail in here, too? I never mentioned it, but I did make a reference… eh, whatever. I don't own that.

The "Stuff owned by other people" section was pretty obvious. Nevertheless, while I am making hilarious disclaimers, why not add them, too? Copyright laws will love me. Review to get some imaginary cake! :D

ONE last thing. I'd like to thank Spell Check for everything it's done for me. :D Though I may be a decent writer, I can't spell to save my life. So, thanks! And thanks to all of you guys, too, for reviewing and favoriting and reading. It makes me happy! :3 Until next time I get an idea! (Which is hopefully really soon, but don't count on it! And, if you have only been reading recently, I don't update every day, unfortunately. Only when I have chapters typed up… recently I have been on a major writing spree, so you get chapters every day! :D BUT NOT ANYMORE. D: Eh, well, I'll update soonish, hopefully. Ja!)


End file.
